K. Pablo Traces the Origins of Air America's Most Famous

If you grew up in Chicago at a time when saturday morning cartoons were a weekly ritual, you no doubt would be familiar with a show called Gigglesnort Hotel. One character whose name was Weird (don't know if he had a last name, it was just "Weird" ... like "Sting") is pictured in the photo at left (he's the one on the left in the pic).

Later in life when Saturday Night Live replaced saturday morning cartoons in my viewing calendar, I could not escape the sneaky suspicion that Al Franken was the inspiration for Weird. Only a heck of a lot less pleasant. Separated at Birth? You be the judge.

Syria: Arsonist and Fireman

Some dingbat commentator on CNN last night mentioned the "incongruity" of Syrian personnel killed in defending the U.S. Embassy during the recent attack. It's only "incongruous" if you don't understand the KGB-influenced Assad M.O., as Walid Phares explains.

Oliver Guttia elaborates further: "Assad like his father is famous for playing the arsonist/fireman strategy. For instance when Western citizens were kidnapped by Hezbollah in the 80's on the orders of Damascus and Tehran, Syria would pretend to help Western nations free their citizens. Nobody was really fooled but everybody played along and thanked the Syrians for their help."

Leftist opinion is dominated by a large chunk of well-meaning-but-ignorant people who believe we can negotiate with some of the most implacable shitbags on the planet. Assuming this was a propaganda action executed by Syrian intelligence, I await the emergence of the "Syrians as Fluffy Bunnies" meme next time we do something tough with Syria. By "tough" I mean anything that would offend the sensibilities of Jimmy Carter, like a cross look or perhaps denying Assad some cookies.

Blockade Iran.

I can't count how many times I've heard the "overextended military" lament. Is the U.S. Navy overextended? Is the U.S. Air Force overextended? Aren't they part of the "military"?

This leads me to the conclusion that the most viable military option against Iran is not a "shock and awe" style campaign against a widely-distributed and only partially-known nuclear infrastructure. The fact that this infrastructure is likely very hardened, requiring tactical nuclear bunker buster technology to penetrate, is even more of a contra-indication to this type of warfare.

Blockade would be an act of war, but I doubt there is much the mullahs could do about it militarily. Their navy is likely to be destroyed in detail in the event of hostilities, even if they resort to "swarming" tactics. Please. Their air force is also likely to evaporate.

Blockade would necessitate dominance of the Caspian Sea, and this would be enhanced by securing basing or overflight rights in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Efforts along these lines are likely to attract the attention of Russia, not likely to go along.

Consequences of blockade on world oil markets include a predictable surge in price per barrel (duh), which can be mitigated in part by a seizure of some of Iran's oil assets and by bringing the Iraqi oil industry online as soon as possible. Indeed, in the face of blockade the mullahs are unlikely to realize any profit (no blockade is 100% effective) from the skyrocketing oil prices, but the Iraqis and other middle east regimes certainly would. Such potential windfalls may dampen criticism from these middle east regimes, especially the ones alarmed by the sudden dominance of Iran.