Hixter

You can either believe it or call me a liar and we can end this conversation right now. The only television I watch is the occasional downloaded show -- typically British fare. I don't have cable or satellite television and there are no antennas connected to my TV; I cut the cord years ago. I get most of my news from the BBC, Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, Reuters, AP and local news websites. I haven't listened to the radio in years; all of my music is on various hard drives, thumb drives and iDevices. If I've ever watched Fox News it's been against my will at an airport bar. I would

I never said that.

Call it what you will, but armed American troops entered a sovereign nation and killed someone. It's an act of war and could have kicked off a major war. The same can be said about the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. I remember it very well, since one of my friends was killed in the barracks bombing. It tracks very closely with Somalia: a UN-backed mission that ended abruptly when Americans were killed, thus leading our adversaries and potential adversaries to believe that we were a paper tiger that would run away if our nose was bloodied.

Yep, but the world was clamoring for it. Starving babies, multinational force, UN mandate, etc. Yes. Can't say that I blame him for trying, but invading a country with a military force and killing people is an act of war.

I remember it well. I was referring to the post-Bush transition from a humanitarian mission to an offensive military mission that resulted in the infamous 'Black Hawk Down' incident. I should have been more clear. Three or four days after the incident which included televised images of American corpses being dragged through the streets, President Clinton announced a pullout from Somalia. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein saw it as a sign that Americans didn't have the stomach for prolonged, boots-on-the-ground combat with heavy losses. They would both learn the hard way that they were wrong

Kennedy got us embroiled in Vietnam, invaded Cuba and brought us to the brink of nuclear war. Carter invaded Iran. Clinton brought us the debacle in Somalia, was hours away from invading Haiti, bombed Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan and invaded Pakistan. Do you consider them to be hawks? I consider them to be men who made difficult decisions in defense of the nation and its interests. I'm sure that Bush, Cheney and Obama have all spent many hours and days of agonizing over their decisions, and they will continue to do so for the rest of their lives. I'm not going to label any of them sociopath

I hope you meant "one side or the other" and not a particular political party, since history would not bear that out. I disagree. I think our nation and its leaders in both parties understand fully the costs and consequences of military action.

I stated very clearly at the beginning of this conversation that I believed it was an accident. We still have no idea of just how much involvement Russian troops had in the incident; nobody knows who pulled the trigger. Nobody knows how much assistance the Russians provided. But intercepted communications between the separatists and Russian officials, the immediate withdrawal of the missile launcher back to Russia and Putin's ham-fisted attempts at blaming the shoot-down on Ukraine indicates that Russia just might have something to hide. I never said that. Of course it is, but that do

All they said was that they don't have absolute proof that a Russian pulled the trigger that day. Another article linked from that same story says: It all comes down to 5th grade schoolyard tactics: Promising to kick a bully's ass (it helps when you're bigger and stronger than he) gives him pause. Giving him the impression that you're weak and unwilling to fight emboldens him. Because Putin, China and the rest of the world believe what their eyes tell them, and what they've seen is a weak and waffling U.S. foreign policy (Syria's famous 'red line' for example) and they perceive the Un

How about top Democrats?

Every (mushroom) cloud has a silver lining!

It costs exactly $0.00 to say, "Mr. Putin, the United States and the rest of Europe will not tolerate any Russian attempt to create a new Soviet Union. We expect Russia to contribute to the European community, not devour it. We all wish for peace, but if you disrupt the peace with military force, you have my word as president that it will be met by an even greater force and Russia will pay a tremendous price for its aggression." If Putin is determined to gobble up his neighbors, nothing will stop him but American military action. But if he's just dipping his toes in the water to see how far

Looks like Senator Feinstein agrees with me: Sen. Feinstein: The U.S. Is Now At Cold War Levels With Russia

As the saying goes, 'talk is cheap.' Unless things escalate -- and they might -- it would cost very little. It basically comes down to the U.S. and our European allies convincing Putin that we will not allow him to rebuild the USSR.

And also for legal obligations due to membership in NATO and other assorted treaties. Probably, although their military is about 1/10 the size of Russia's. They have about 1/40 the number of tanks and a similar gap in aircraft. Yes. The more oil we pump, the less leverage Putin's oil and gas have. It's still unclear, as the Russians are in full coverup mode. I suspect they provided the radar data necessary for the shootdown. It was almost certainly a case of mistaken identity, but with hundreds of their citizens dead as a result of Russia's actions, the Europeans are unlikely to c

The downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 is another reminder that we have entered Cold War II. The Russians are snatching up territory in Ukraine, providing missiles used to down the passenger jet, hiding the evidence, hindering the investigation and, in typical Cold War fashion, lying about it all. Putin is sending nukes on bombers and subs to the very edge of American and European borders in provocations that we haven't seen in 20 years. Things have changed since the Berlin Wall fell. The United States had 400,000 troops stationed in Europe; now we have 60,000. We had thousands of tank

Sad news.

I saw a lot of shows there between 1983 and 2008. The Ramones gigs were the best, but I also saw a great Blonde Redhead performance circa 1997 that was attended by about a dozen people. It wasn't technically at Jannus Landing, but at a pub that opened onto the courtyard.

I found some photos I took on an old disc camera at my first show in 1983. It was at Jannus Landing in St Pete and the show was sponsored by local station 98 Rock, so tickets were 98 cents. I saw them one more time, also at Jannus Landing, on their farewell tour in 1996.

Very sad news. Nels Cline has played with him in the past.

Sixties dinosaurs The Rolling Stones (well, 80% of them) and The Who (well, 50% of them) are alive and doing 50th anniversary tours, while the poor Ramones lived to an average age of 54. What a bad run of luck they had. Well, at least the band's back together out there somewhere ...

A 1977 clip of Keith Moon telling Billy Preston, Melissa Manchester and Phoebe Snow a tale about destroying hotel rooms; he then goes on to wreck one with Steve Martin. Part of the Martin clip appears on The Kids are Alright movie, but I don't think I've ever seen the entire segment.

Homemade venison-jalapeño sausage.