Well, folks... a day late and $150 short... (inside joke; fagetaboutit!)
Listening to Armadillo World Radio...
Had a kick-ass dinner on Friday at Il Capriccio... including a bottle of Ripassa, Superiore Zenato, 2010...
(*LICKING MY LIPS WHILE RUBBING MY BELLY*)
Oh... and as my Facebook "followers" and certain friends already know, the Poops and I have booked our NEXT vacation adventure - Nashville, Memphis, and... one night at an as yet "undiscovered" location.
(*WINK*)
All in all... a damn good weekend!
2 comments:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/21/dhs-intelligence-report-warns-of-domestic-right-wi/
A new Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment circulated this month focuses on the threat of right-wing sovereign citizen extremist groups in the U.S.
Some law enforcement groups say the threat is equal to, and occasionally greater than, the threat from Islamic extremist groups.
* YA KNOW WHAT, FOLKS, IT'S TIME TO SHUT DOWN "HOMELAND SECURITY."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-launches-military-operation-in-syria-to-evacuate-ottoman-tomb-1424595817?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
Turkey launched a large-scale military operation inside Syrian territory overnight to evacuate an Ottoman tomb - and the Turkish soldiers guarding it - thought to be at risk from Islamic State militants.
(*STANDING OVATION*)
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a statement that the mission had resulted in the successful repatriation of the soldiers guarding the mausoleum of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, which is located in Syria’s war-torn Aleppo province.
Mr. Davutoglu added that the mission, which involved some 600 Turkish ground forces backed by 100 military vehicles and 39 tanks, also rescued Shah’s remains.
(*THUMBS UP*)
One soldier was killed in an accident during the early stages of the operation, which moved the tomb to another location in Syria closer to the Turkish border, Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu reported.
Turkish television channels broadcast images of Turkish troops planting Turkey’s flag at the new site at Suriye Eşmesi village, about 20 miles north of its previous location and only 200 meters from the Turkish border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he “personally monitored” the operation, which lasted all night. “Not a single bullet was fired,” Mr. Erdogan said in a statement sent to the press Sunday morning, without elaborating.
The operation comes after a raft of media reports that Turkish soldiers guarding the tomb had been effectively trapped by nearby Islamic State fighters for months. Turkish and Kurdish officials in Syria said the tomb had recently been caught in crossfire between Islamic State and Kurdish militia advancing after they ejected the jihadists from the Syrian border town of Kobani. A leaked report from Turkey’s intelligence agency warned that the jihadists were planning imminent attacks on Turkish targets and embassies on Turkish territory.
“The ongoing conflict and state of chaos in Syria posed serious risks to the safety and security of the tomb and of the Turkish Armed Forces personnel valiantly guarding it,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“We had planned the evacuation for a very long time, but the recent clashes between the Islamic State and the Kurds confirmed the tomb was not safe,” said one senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Damascus responded angrily on Sunday, calling the Turkish operation an act of “flagrant aggression” and saying Turkey would bear responsibility for any reprisals.
* YEAH... LIKE THE TURKS ARE INTIMIDATED!
(*SNORT*)
Syria’s state news agency Sana quoted a Foreign Ministry official alleging that the bloodless incursion suggested a close relationship between Turkey’s government and jihadist groups, something Ankara has long denied.
Although Turkey’s Foreign Ministry notified Syria’s consulate in Istanbul of the operation, it didn’t wait for Damascus’s consent, the statement added.
Critics and opposition politicians accused the government of a lack of transparency over the conditions leading to the operation and alleged cooperation with the Kurdish militants — which the government has denied.
Some 40 Turkish soldiers guard the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman I.
(The tomb, some 20 miles from Turkish territory on the banks of the Euphrates River, was given to Turkey in a 1921 agreement with France while Syria was still under colonial control.)
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