Syria

al Assad - Dasha Zaitseva/Gazeta. R

The sudden departure of Assad seems to have caught everyone by surprise. The situation seems to be chaotic at best. Don't want to speculate what's going to happen, but this might be good time to review what led to this situation. Here's some stories I can across today:

• Assad’s collapse was coming – everyone just looked away by Vitaly Ryumshin
• Families search Syria’s Sednaya Prison for loved ones after al-Assad’s fall
• The Syrian mess - Bayou Rennaissance Man
• Syrious Change - The Assad Regime Falls - The Shekel

I do wonder why most every country outside of North America and Europe seems to be run vicious thugs. Is that the only way they can keep a lid on things? Are their populations just more naturally fractious? Are they stupid? Has the heat fried their brains?

Or maybe I just haven't seen the light. If I had, I would know in my heart of hearts that the Grand Poobah of Lower Elbonia was the voice of God and that I should kill all the infidels. I'm sorry, I can't. I am too indoctrinated with the liberal ways of the West. Christ almighty, my wife not only drives, she has her own car.

Funnies

Tu-160

Russian Tupolev Tu-160

This is like a scene out of a science fiction movie. I know airliners routinely fly over the Arctic and snow-covered mountains, but they don't fly so low (unless they are landing in Switzerland), and airliners aren't supersonic. I dunno, it's just a heck of a picture. Also, I spent a couple of hours putting the puzzle together.

Previous posts that mention this airplane.

Tam has a nightmare

Well, that was an awful dream...

Little Dieter Needs To Fly

Little Dieter Needs to Fly - Werner Herzog (1997) [Documentary] Watch Free Full Length Online
Josep Svęnnan

This is an amazing film. It's just over an hour long. It chronicles the life and times of one Dieter Dengler, German immigrant, US Navy pilot and Vietnamese prisoner of war. He escapes, which is obvious from the opening scene.

I originally watched the copy posted by YouTube Movies & TV only to find it age-restricted, so you can't embed it. Well, you can, but it won't play anywhere but on YouTube. Then I found this copy and it is not age-restricted, though who knows, YouTube may catch on and slap a restriction on it. Anyway, going by the title and the run time, it's probably the same video I watched. I haven't watched this one yet so I can't say for sure.

There isn't anything visually offensive in the video, but his verbal descriptions of his experiences are horrific.

Dieter flew a Skyraider, which has appeared here before.

Yellow Submarine

Brian Betten stands in front of his “yellow submarine” — a propane tank painted yellow and decorated like the marine vessel in the Beatles song. - Messenger photo by Bret Hayworth

This 'submarine' sits by the side of US20 not far from my wife's hometown of Rockwell City, Iowa. The Messenger is the Fort Dodge newspaper. Got to wondering after I wrote 'newspaper', do they still print a real paper newspaper? Yes, they do. 

You can see an older version of the submarine on Google's Streetview:

Yellow Submarine, Google Streetview

It even has a placemark on Google Maps now.

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
The Beatles

Here's the song that started all this. I really liked the Beatles music back then, but at some point I kinda got burned out on it, and kind of tired of McCarthy's relentless cheerfulness, and I quit listening to them. Probably happened about the same time that Lennon was shot.  Well, I didn't stop listening completely, I still listen to them occasionally.