Three Bands

Three bands have similar (to me) names and because even though I like them all, I am not their number one fan and therefore get them totally mixed up.

The Stone Roses:



The Gin Blossoms: We saw these guys last Summer with Collective Soul.



The Wallflowers: Jakob Dylan, their front man is great in the recent documentary: Echo In The Canyon



I had been meaning to post this for a while, but every time I remembered the last band, I would forget one. Hopefully this post will allow me to keep all three in my head at the same time.

Iran Retaliates!

The expected reply has come from Iran for our killing of their general, Qasem Soleimani.

They fired 10 or so ballistic missiles at military bases in Iraq, which housed American troops. If early reports are true, all they did was make some holes in the sand and caused no casualties or meaningful damage. Now the news media has been telling us that these missals are like Skuds, except that they are modern Persian miracles and are very accurate. So this opens two possibilities: They are very accurate and the Iranians missed on purpose. They wanted a face-saving gesture for their domestic audience, but did not want to make the US feel like we have to retaliate in any meaningful way. The other possibility is that their missiles are crap.

I am inclined to this latter possibility because of the other two embarrassing f-ups they just endured: At Qasem Soleimani's funeral, 56 people were reportedly killed in a stampede. A Ukrainian jetliner was apparently shot-down shortly after takeoff from Tehran and right after their missile barrage ended. I say apparently because; 1. The Iranians are not sending the flight recorder to Boeing for analysis. 2. Ukraine has suspended flights into or out of Iran, not something you do over mechanical troubles.

What Is The Use of a Popular Opinion?

I got a comment from somebody I know IRL from a post in Facebook and there was something about it that seemed, off. Let's see what you, the reader, think:

David as much as you are entitled to your opinion, you seem to always be on the side of what most consider wrong.

What is the use of a popular opinion? I guess it depends on whether it is a hidden popular opinion or an open popular opinion. Let me elucidate. The Emperor's New Clothes (Kejserens nye klæder) by Hans Christian Anderson is a case of a hidden popular opinion: Everybody saw that the emperor was naked but they were afraid to say it. Only once a child said that the emperor had no clothes was the spell broken. An open popular opinion is one that is popular and widely stated. Here, what is the value in stating it yourself? To show that you are part of the herd? It is at best, an act of cowardice (wanting to belong) or of stupidity (stating facts that everyone already knows).

As to the specifics of this Facebook post, it was an article on the killing of Qasem Soleimani. This article did't take a position on the wisdom of the killing, which is why I think my interlocutor didn't read the article before he commented. But he knows I'm a conservative and probably assumed (correctly) that I approve of the killing. Most of the media has been highly critical, including the piece I posted, but I often post fair-minded articles that do not exactly hew to my own views. In any case, in spite of the MSM being fairly uniform in condemning the attack, I think that most Americans, once they find out about the career of Mr. Soleimani, are pretty much in favor of his demise.

Us little people are the ones saying, 'but the emperor has no clothes', in this situation