Ian is such a wonderful man. He never fails to make me smile.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by eric3579.

Ian Welsh reminds us of a quote by Mark Twain:

There were two ‘Reigns of Terror’, if we could but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million; but our shudders are all for the horrors of the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror – that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.

Nope, me neither.

Which is sort of the point. It's unheard of that all of these agencies came to the same conclusion on a specific matter. Some may take this as an indicator of how damning the evidence really is, others see this as an indicator that the "assessments" were made on hierarchical levels reserved for political appointees.

The absence of dissent supports the second point of view. No group of analysts in their right mind would create a report without also strongly pointing out contradictory facts, inconsistencies, and separating fact from interpretation. That's what Hersh is referring to. This is not an NIE, it's an opinion piece. This memo by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (wierd name) goes down the same route:

As you will have gathered by now, we strongly suspect that the evidence your intelligence chiefs have of a joint Russian-hacking-WikiLeaks-publishing operation is no better than the “intelligence” evidence in 2002-2003 – expressed then with comparable flat-fact “certitude” – of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Now, an opinion piece might be sufficient if it came from credible institutions and had a moderatly important subject. But this is throwing serious accusations at a sovereign nation in times when diplomatic relations are stressed as it is. And that's not going into the credibility problem of many of these agencies, who have a very dubious track record on these issues.

Ian Welsh had a piece the other day on the CIA vs Trump, and his take on intelligence agencies is pretty close to what mine has been since I learned about the Stasi some 20 years ago:

The CIA and NSA are not the friend of any left-wing worth having: they are innately anti-democratic, anti-privacy, and anti-rights. Secret agencies are anathema to any open government. At an existential level, intelligence agencies are at best a double edged sword, and by their nature, they always wind up serving the interests of the few, against the interests of the people.

Whenever I see Ian McShane i say 'SWEDJEN!' in my head several times and smile.

This is one of my all-time favourite books, but I have to disagree with @AeroMechanical.

There's very little in the way of exposition in this book. It treats you like an adult and expects that you have at least an inkling of various world religions/mythologies.

For example, the always terrifying Peter Stromare (the guy with the hammer) plays Czernobog. Don't know who that is? Go look it up, 'cos Gaiman isn't bothered telling you.

So far, this looks amazing. My only (very minor) criticism is the bizarre decision to have Ian McShane clean shaven (especially since Ian McShane can rock a beard like nobodies business!) when Mr Wednesday is described as having a beard.

I am really, really excited for this.

*quality

Ian McShane was one of the highlights of season 6. It would have been great to see more of him, but I think ultimately his arc was the right one.

*related= http://videosift.com/video/Ian-C-Bouras-Escape-From-Planet-Brain
* ban2.0
Aaron Ure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gigMf0MQ8hI

*ban2.0
Aaron Ure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gigMf0MQ8hI

*related= http://videosift.com/video/Ian-C-Bouras-Jam-with-Sax
*ban1.0
Aaron Ure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR2NqeV__bc

I can't come up with any YT channel or person that annoys me, really. But I only know a handful, so...

As for video styles, well, anyone who shoves his/her face into the camera or seems hyperactive. Not my kinda thing. Any instructional video that focuses more on the person than the actual subject.

Ian of ForgottenWeapons.com has a style I rather like. Composed, focused on the subject, very informative, bit of comedy -- no yelling, no twitching, no music, all business.

I wonder if the Collector's Edition comes with a small sample of mustard gas...

Anyway, enough people have badgered Ian to comment on this, so he did.

*ban
X ian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqB5c_lj-eI

Brother, do you feel depressed today?

No? Then take a look at this short piece by Ian Welsh and/or this long(!) piece by Matt Taibbi.

This clip from Spinal Tap is apropos, because it's a lampoon of the Monkees video, but they were also lampooning Maiden, Sabbath, Priest, Saxon, Randy Rhoads, Ian Gillan, etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BYzaDwNoE

This is an interesting interview with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, because it addresses a rumor that they had walked out of Spinal Tap because they believed the band was making fun of them (which was untrue): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1022475/He-aint-heavy-hes-captain----Iron-Maiden-rocker.html

It's important to note that the members of Spinal Tap were all musicians and played their own music from the get go, whereas the Monkees only recorded their vocals and had other people play the instruments. Of course, in time the Monkees learned to play, even if there was so much wasted recording time they had to bring in other musicians to fill in. They eventually improved enough to play live shows with their own instrument play.

I gotta do my best to defend the Monkees, Iron Maiden, and Spinal Tap, because they ARE all great acts and entertainers. I say ARE because, as of 2016, The Monkees, Iron Maiden, AND Spinal Tap are all touring to this day. Not together, of course. That would be too awesome.

Okay,
So now I have to share my photo of me with Carrie & Ian (AKA, Emperor Palpatine.)

I was lucky enough to meet Carrie and Ian in Calgary. And yes, she's so awesome to talk to, she also likes to throw Glitter.
This photo was taken the week before she had to start her diet for the new movie, which she joked about at the time.

http://people.okanagan.bc.ca/lnickel/Sagemind/CarrieAndIan.jpg

sorry for the bad scan...