“Suspected Gunmen”

Charles Lipson, at American Thinker:

In Britain's leading papers, we find pictures of gun-toting terrorists, in the midst of grisly killings, called "suspected" gunmen. No delicate sensibilities are offended, as they might be if the gunmen were plainly called terrorists en route to taking hostages and killing civilians.

Since the pictures are protected by Reuters' copyright, I will describe them and provide links. They are close- and medium-range photos of a one person, not crowd scenes. They clearly show a gunman with his finger on the trigger of an assault rifle, ready to fire at any moment.

Calling these terrorists "suspects" in the midst of the carnage they so obviously perpetrated is worse than the usual banality of mainstream journalism. It is craven. Faced with the visible image of terrorists at work, these newspapers responded with the insipid posture of professional neutrality.

Nor can these photo captions be excused as one person's mistake. They passed through too many hands for that. They ran in prominent locations in several British papers and must have survived multiple editors. They remained posted, captions unchanged, long after the mass slaughter became known.

Political correctness, moral cowardice, euphemism … whatever you want to call it – it's just one more example of how the lamestream media is working itself into obsolescence…

Recommendation: Stanley 95-112 Tripod LED Flashlight

We recently purchased this Stanley tripod LED flashlight (on sale at Amazon), and I've been using it every morning and evening when walking the dogs. I like it.

It's not the brightest flashlight I've had, but it's bright enough for most purposes. The fact that it uses LEDs means that it should be reliable (no bulbs to burn out) and the batteries should last a long time (because LEDs are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs).

The tripod design and swivel head are a clever innovation for situations when you need both hands free to work with. When the tripod is folded, the rubbery wafers make a solid and comfortable grip. Nicely done all around!

In The Cold Fog...

I just got back inside after walking the dogs. We're in a dense, cold fog right now – visibility is just a hundred feet or so, and the temperature is 42°F. If you swish your hand around in the fog, it gets wet. Everything outside is covered with a film of water from condensed fog. Shining a flashlight into the fog, in the perfectly still air, I can see countless tiny particles of water drifting slowly downwards...

So different than just a month ago!

I'll Wait...

Forwarded by Simi L. I have no idea if this is real or not, but I like it!

According to a Marine Pilot:

In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten minute 'heads up' if they will be transiting Iranian airspace.

This is a common procedure for commercial aircraft and involves giving them your call sign, transponder code, type aircraft, and points of origin and destination.

I just flew with a guy who overheard this conversation on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai. It's too good not to pass along. The conversation went something like this...

Air Defense Radar: 'Unknown aircraft at (location unknown), you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.'

Aircraft: 'This is a United State s aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.'

Air Defense Radar: 'You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!'

Aircraft: 'This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send 'em up, I'll wait!'

Air Defense Radar: (no response ... total silence)

Semper Fi!

Groan...

A collection of groan-inducing puns, forwarded by my cousin Mike:

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
   
   
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
   
   
3. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.
   
   
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
   
   
5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.|
   
   
6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
   
   
7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
   
   
8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
   
   
9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
   
   
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
    
    
11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
    
    
12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
    
    
13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'
    
    
14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
    
    
15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
    
    
16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'
    
    
17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
    
    
18. It's not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn't have the balls to do it.
    
    
19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
    
    
20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
    
    
21. A backward poet writes inverse.
    
    
22. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
    
    
23. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
    
    
24. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Groan, indeed!