According to this article from Bill Gertz in Friday's Washington Times, the Dragon apparently offered the US the opportunity to split the Pacific in half.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Disturbing and comical news out of the Far East this week, as the Chi-Coms and the Russians have announced they are conducting joint exercises in CHEBARKUL TESTING RANGE, Russia.  That is the disturbing news.

The comical news is that Russian Czar Vladimir Putin, in a bid to establish Russia as a global military power, has ordered Russian Tu-95 "Bear" bombers back in the air on their station-keeping Cold War-era patrols.

[Read the rest of this article...]

In case you missed it, I got a nice mention in The Daily Times "Story Chat" feature.  You can read the post here.

While my numbers aren't stellar, it's good to know that folks like accomack_transplant think this site is worth reading.

Some bloggers are obsessed with numbers.  I am not.  I know who reads my postings.  Many choose not to comment.  Some because they can't due to who they are and what they do, others because they don't know how, and a few because they think that posting "I agree" serves no purpose.  All those choices are fine with me.

Anyway, thanks for the shoutout, and if there is something you want to see me write on, contact me at blog@gunpowderchronicle.com.

[Read the rest of this article...]

We've seen a pretty wild ride this week on the stock market.  Yes, there has been troubling news coming out the sub-prime mortgage market (in my opinion, the bad news is that there IS a sub-prime mortgage market), but the wild extremes of highs and lows has been a little scary.

Why?

Because wild negative swings in value are what cause margin calls, and margin calls are what start runs.  It was margin calls that started the subprime crisis, as lenders starting calling their chits and the mortgage companies became cash-strapped.

So why the wild swings?

[Read the rest of this article...]

Runaround Sue keeps pushing the lies.  In a comment to my post here, Runaround Sue continues to push this notion that I sent the "real fightin4th" a two page letter.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Well, Runaround Sue has re-appeared over at his old blogspot address.  And he is claiming once again that the hackers are ruling the roost.  Only his story today has shifted.  Yesterday, they were "tracking down IP addresses".  Today, he "needs to contact our server and find out what the problem is".

But wait, I thought you and your host were teaming up to bring down the big bad mighty hacker. Today, you can't get in contact with them?

Very suspicious, very suspicious indeed.  Which story is it, Runaround Sue?  Or is this just another one of those claims like you will root out and expose the real Fightin4th?  Because we know it is never your fault.   Nothing you ever do could cause a shutdown. Like maybe violating the Terms of Service of your host.  Or being so amaturish that you can't even optimize a couple photos so you don't suck the bandwidth out of people's connections.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Runaround Sue's sbynews.com has been suspended.  At 11:33 pm, the site is showing the following:

This Account Has Been Suspended

Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Runaround Sue is now claiming that someone is trying to hack his site, and they are tracking down the IP addresses as they speak.  Hmm... so did they issue subpoenas for that information yet?

The reality is that his site is slow because he is a complete and utter moron who does not know how to scale and optimize images -- or use tools like Picasa or Flickr -- to do it for him.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Runaround Sue has a post on his blog today titled Honored To Be In The Presence Of Four Great Men Yesterday.  He was referring to Guvnah Marty the Mick O'Malley, Ricky Pollitt, John Cannon, and Mike Lewis.

[Read the rest of this article...]

The Real Scandal in Salisbury City Government was not that the Mayor tried to ramrod through a water fee increase is not that there was $5 million dollars in the surplus fund than was publicly announced at the Council meeting monday night, or that the Mayor tried to deny council members access to this information.

The real scandal in Salisbury City Government is that at any point during the month, the government offices do not seem to have any type of accurate picture of the City's financial standing.

[Read the rest of this article...]