Author Archives: scottsoapbox

Al Qaeda Recruitment Techniques Horrific

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Michael Yon has an eye-opening piece on his site MichaelYon-Online.com. It displays just how barbaric the enemy has become. The scary part is that NO ONE is picking this up in the media. How is it that we are fighting the most vicious enemy we have ever faced – and yet we here little if anything on these acts?

Speaking through an American interpreter, Lieutenant David Wallach who is a native Arabic speaker, the Iraqi official related how al Qaeda united these gangs who then became absorbed into “al Qaeda.” They recruited boys born during the years 1991, 92 and 93 who were each given weapons, including pistols, a bicycle and a phone (with phone cards paid) and a salary of $100 per month, all courtesy of al Qaeda. These boys were used for kidnapping, torturing and murdering people.

At first, he said, they would only target Shia, but over time the new al Qaeda directed attacks against Sunni, and then anyone who thought differently. The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11 years old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family. [emphasis added]

Michael Yon in addition to bringing us this little publicized tale, also offers a bit of striking commentary on Al Qaeda. He puts it so well, we had to reprint it here:

Like many things in Iraq, the question of whether or not the murderers were al Qaeda is flawed from beginning. Al Qaeda is not a union, it doesn’t issue passports. What is al Qaeda but the collection of people who claim to be al Qaeda? Those responsible for murdering and burying those bodies in al Ahamir (or al Hamira) had the markers of al Qaeda, the same al Qaeda that had boastfully installed itself as the shadow government of Baqubah. The al Qaeda who committed atrocities in Afghanistan, New York . . . the list is long. As for al Ahamir, the massacre “walks like a duck.” It happened in duck headquarters. The people here say the duck did it. The duck laughs.

iPhone Theft Attempt

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Here’s something you don’t see everyday… a thief tries to swipe an iPhone during a live interview so that he can own it 9 hours sooner than everyone else.

Unfortunately for him, he’s an idiot and grabs the Fox News mic instead.

Work Stats

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Everyone should read a great new book out called The 4-Hour Workweek.  Here are a few work stats from the web site:

Compared to 1970, American managers are working an additional month per year

In 2005, a psychiatrist at King’s College in London administered IQ tests to three groups: the first did nothing but perform the IQ test, the second was distracted by e-mail and ringing phones, and the third was stoned on marijuana.  Not surprisingly, the first group did better than the other two by an average of 10 points.  The e-mailers, on the other hands, did worse than the stoners by an average of 6 points

26% of Americans take no vacations at all. Only 14% of Americans take two weeks or more at a time for vacation. The average American therefore spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation.

People work approximately 8 weeks longer per year than in 1969—in the space of a single generation—but for roughly the same income (after adjusting for inflation)

40% of employees work overtime or bring work home with them at least once a week

Average Annual Vacation Days
Italy     42
France     37
Germany     35
Brazil     34
Britain     28
Canada     26
Japan     25
USA     13

First Born #1 In Smarts

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The eldest children in families tend to develop higher I.Q.’s than their siblings, researchers are reporting today, in a large study that could settle more than a half-century of scientific debate about the relationship between I.Q. and birth order.

This is, of course, old hat to some like myself. It’s about time researchers caught up with what us first born have know for years: we rock! Intellectually of course.

What I didn’t realize was that I apparently my 3% of superfluous brain matter by not attending a “elite private liberal-arts college [instead of] a less exclusive public one”. And all the while I thought I was smart for getting an equivalent education for $100,000 less. (Do student loans make you sharper?)

Unfortunately for “late borns” the trend seems to continue – downward. “Eldest children scored an average of 103.2, about 3 percent higher than second children (100.3) and 4 percent higher than thirdborns (99.0).” But not to fear younglings: while first born children win more Nobel Prizes, “younger siblings often live more adventurous lives” than there older counterparts.

Parents are apparently mostly to blame. While most parents are pushing their eldest to cure cancer, younger siblings must resort to base jumping to get needed attention. Still many researchers are very, very excited about this study. Frank J. Sulloway, had this to say:

“I consider these two papers the most important publications to come out in this field in 70 years; it’s a dream come true.”

Sulloway, a psychologist at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley has obviously not had sex in many years.

“Idiot Sighting”

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A fairly funny fwd:

IDIOT SIGHTING: I was at the airport, checking in at the gate, when an airport employee asked, “Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?

To which I replied, “If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?”

He smiled knowingly and nodded, “That’s why we ask.” This happened in Birmingham, AL.

Thanks Kristen