No, not my shotgun Bruce. Bruce Campbell, the star of such great movies as Army of Darkness, Bubba Ho-Tep, and My Name is Bruce. He (of course) also has his own TV show now called Burn Notice. I know that it’s the other guy who is supposed to be the star, but really… we know the REAL score around here in Casa De Gringo.
So, Happy Birthday Bruce and I promise – no more drinking games during Burn Notice.
I stumbled onto this and got a good laugh out of it. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to roll a saving throw vs. uber-geekyness
*roll*
Damn, failed it again.
David Rhodes, a reporter for the New York Times, just escaped from his captors last Friday and managed to get to some friendly forces and is now back in good hands. For this I am glad for him, his family and his co-workers.
On the other hand, part of the article quoted his editors at the Times saying this
“All along, we were told by people that probably the wisest course for David’s safety was to keep it quiet,” Keller said in an interview on CNN.
So they did.
“It was an agonizing position that we revisited over and over again,” Keller said in the CNN interview with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz. “But I also have a responsibility for the people who work for me. I send a lot of people out into dangerous places and their security is also part of my job.”
It’s a shame that the level of responsibility that he takes for his people doesn’t extend to the rest of the country. They named Khaled Sheik Mohammed’s interrogator over the request of the CIA who wanted to protect him and were concerned for his safety; they revealed sensitive information about troop movements using illegally leaked classified information which could have compromised the safety of our troops, but when it comes to one of their own people the stance is “We had a responsibility to him.”
Yeah? Well what about the responsibility you have to the Americans you endangered by those other reports you did? Oh, the public had a right to know, right? Well how come we had a right (and somehow a need) to know the name of KSMs interrogator and we didn’t have a need to know that an American citizen was being held hostage by a bunch of scumbag terrorists? Oh, because that story wouldn’t have hurt the military or the intelligence community while Bush was president.
Again, I am glad that David Rhodes is safe and unharmed, I just wish the Times was as concerned about other people’s safety as they are about one of their own.
**UPDATE**
Michelle Malkin has a much better look at the Times and their attitude on national security.
I picked this little gem up over at Mountaineer Musings and it made me LOL, it surely did.
Seems that Jim Mcdermott’s scheduler/office manager has a very, very thin skin over her name. Apparently Liz doesn’t like it when anyone calls her by anything but her full name – Elizabeth.
An executive assistant at McBee Strategic recently learned this the hard way. A few weeks ago, the assistant e-mailed Becton seeking a meeting with McDermott and a client, JPMorgan Chase. Days later, the assistant checked back in and unfortunately began the e-mail with “Hi Liz.”
Becton curtly replied, “Who is Liz?”
When the assistant wrote back with an apology, Becton turned up the heat. “I do not go by Liz. Where did you get your information?” she asked.
The back-and-forth went on for 19 e-mails, with the assistant apologizing six times if she had “offended” Becton, while Becton lectured about name-calling.
19 emails because someone didn’t call Lizzy by the name she prefers? Instead of just saying “I prefer not to be called that” or “I would appreciate if you just call me Elizabeth because I don’t like nicknames…” she instead turns it into a verbal assault and the only reason she can get away with it is because of who her boss is.
Betsy is a bright, shining example of our current government in action – a small minded bureaucrat who would rather spend her day in a pissing contest over NOTHING than actually doing any work. And she goes on with it because the implication is that she will stop the offender from getting his meeting unless she is happy. She’s the kind of person that you just love to think of variations on her name like Liza, Bettie, Betsy, and sometimes Zibba or Zibby, as well as the German variations Elzina and Elsa (Elzy, Alzy, Aisley) JUST because you know it will piss her off.
All I can hope is that one day her email address slips out into the world and I will send her a e-greeting every day saying “Dearest, Liz, have a happy day!”
Hey, I can dream can’t I?
