A very happy holiday weekend for me indeed

I'm happy to announce that I will be starting a new job, Monday July 13th. I'll be security architect and engineer for a global web/video/teleconferencing company, on a 100% work from home basis. I really like the company, and the people I'll be working with, and I'm very excited about this. Wish me luck.

CVS Drops Tobacco Products, Walgreens Considering it

Washington Post: "Why CVS thinks it can win big by ending cigarette sales"

Don't mistake this for altruism... this is forward thinking, and getting ahead of the trend, in order to milk some good PR out of it.

They're losing 2.4% of their gross revenue and 3% of their profit, in exchange for lots of good press, and avoiding a lot of hassle.

Walgreens is apparently "considering dropping tobacco products" as well.

Mark my words, the next target of the tobacco lawsuit industry will be retailers (just like the gun lawsuit industry has gone after gun stores). Never mind what will happen to tobacco producers and sellers if Obamacare proceeds.

Dropping tobacco means, lower insurance and legal bills, fewer hassles from state regulators, and less risk in general.

The smoking population in america is now below 20% (2013 estimate is 19% of adults). Unless a store is a "first choice" retailer for tobacco products, or can sell them at a large markup (gas stations are both for example) it no longer makes sense to sell tobacco products.

Somebody has been reading too much buzzfeed

FIghting Men

From Drudge:

PRINCE HARRY FIGHTS ON FRONTLINES IN AFGHANISTAN; 3 MONTH TOUR
Thu Feb 28 2008 11:01:34 ET

They're calling him "Harry the Hero!"

British Royal Prince Harry has been fighting in Afghanistan since late December -- and has been directly involved in gun battle, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The prince, a junior officer in the Blues and Royals, and third in line to the throne, has been a "magnificent soldier" and an "inspiration to all of Briton."

Prince Harry is taking part in a new offensive against the Taliban.

Ministry of Defense and Clarence House refuse all comment. Army chiefs have managed to keep the prince away from media and have encourage fellow soldiers in his squadron to stay quiet.

Developing...

Henry, Prince of Wales, is a fighting man.

The reaction from some has been along the lines of "I'm impressed", from others more like "I'm shocked and surprised".

Me? Impressed absolutely, but not surprised.

Some men love their country far more than their positions in society. Some love their honor more than their comfort.

Although the royal family take a lot of criticism, basically just for being who and what they are (some of which is deserved, some not); the royal family are not cowards, they aren’t lazy, and they aren't shirkers.

Harrys father, Prince Charles is a qualified naval aviator, both fixed and rotary wing; and also a qualified surface warfare officer, and surface command officer. He spent 5 years as a full time naval officer, and 15 years in the royal naval reserve. His last naval tour was 9 months in command of a light cruiser.

Charles of course holds the honorary ranks of marshal, general, and admiral in the army, air force, and navy; but he legitimately earned the rank of commander in the royal navy.

Harrys uncle, Prince Andrew is also a qualified fixed and rotary wing naval aviator, and served in the Falklands war as a CSAR helicopter pilot. Andrew had a 22 year full time naval career; and also legitimately earned the rank of Commander (as his brother had). He is a graduate of the Royal Naval College. In his last tour of duty, he commanded a helicopter squadron for two years.

His other uncle Edward was a 2nd Lt. in the Royal Marines.

Harrys grandfather, prince consort Philip was XO on a destroyer in WW2.

Harry is a graduate of the royal military academy at Sandhurst. He trained as a challenger commander, and commanded a tank troop; but the Army refused to send him to Iraq. He initially fought for combat duty, but the Army convinced him that he would be a danger to other soldiers, because the enemy would make a point of directing their resources towards killing or capturing him specifically.

At that point, he backed down, and retrained as a combat air controller (equivalent to a Forward Air Controller); and requested assignment to Afghanistan (where he is now serving).

By all accounts, the men who have served with Charles, Andrew, and Harry have held them all in the highest regard and with the deepest respect. These are fighting men, and worthy of the honor of their ranks and awards.

Iran

After the third cable cut, I heard from friends in a position to know on this one; that it was near certain they were deliberate cuts, probably by Iran.

Now the ITU is basically confirming it... though they don't absolutely confirm it (and probably never will), the chances this was anything but deliberate are basically zero.

Sea cable snappage was sabotage Middle eastern cables destroyed deliberately By Nick Farrell: Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 7:46 AM THE International Telecommunication Union has claimed that a spate of telecommunication outages to the Middle East were the result of sabotage. Five undersea cables were damaged causing huge disruption to Internet and telephone services in the Middle East and south Asia. Union spokesman Sami al-Murshed, told AFP said that while there was still an ongoing investigation into the incidents it would seem that there was a deliberate act of sabotage. While it was possible that one cable could have been damaged by a ship's anchor the others were too deep. Besides the chances of five cables being cut within a two week period was unlikely. Murshed said on the sidelines of a conference on cyber-crime held in Gulf state of Qatar that the cables lie at great depths under the sea and are not passed over by ships.

Much as I don't care for the man

... he's better than most of the alternatives:

(Reuters) - Tony Blair announced on Thursday he would step down on June 27 after a decade as prime minister, and told Britons disillusioned by the war in Iraq that he had always done what he believed was right. Blair's popularity has suffered since he sent British forces to join the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. A Labour Party rebellion in September forced him to say he would quit within a year, opening the way for Gordon Brown to take over. "Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right," Blair told Labour Party members in his constituency in northern England. "I may have been wrong, that's your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else: I did what I thought was right for our country." U.S. President George W. Bush, who developed a remarkably close relationship with Blair, said the prime minister was a long-term thinker and a man who kept his word. "When Tony Blair tells you something, as we say in Texas, you can take it to the bank. We've got a relationship such that we can have really good discussions -- so I'll miss him, he's a remarkable person and I consider him a good friend," he said. Blair's resignation triggers a contest to lead the Labour Party that finance minister Brown is favorite to win. Labour said its new leader and deputy would be announced on June 24.

Gordon Brown is going to be a disaster for the entire world.

We go up one with Sarkozy, and down one with Brown the very next day.