Sometimes when I am surfing through the Milblogs I come across something written by one of our soldiers in Iraq that is so sweet and honest I just have to share it. This is from Blog Machine City talking about missing his new wife:
"She's been extraordinarily considerate and understanding - almost unbelievably so, considering that she said to me that she didn't want to become an Army wife and I made her one anyway. (Muahahaha!) But when I dream at night, I don't dream of her - I dream of nothing but B Company, in every conceivable situation. At parties, in combat, just sitting around - it's a red-letter night if at least one member of this damn unit isn't visiting me in my sleep. As Agent Smith said in The Matrix:
I'm going to be honest with you. I hate this place...this...zoo, this...prison, this...reality...whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer.
It's great that I can chat with her every day from the comfort of my room, but we both often wonder if there's really a person on the other end, or if it isn't just some Turing machine, issuing programmed responses. How would either of us know?
Having my head down for so long, staring at my feet, watching one foot land in front of the other, one day at a time - one day I'm going to look up and Melobi will be there, and the World, and Iraq will be behind me. Or...so I assume, but there's no way of knowing until I get there."
It makes my heart ache. It really does.
Friday, July 15, 2005
A Soldier's thoughts.
I know you probably already saw this on Drudge, but I had to copy it. Too awesome. It shows us the kind of men our soldiers are. But we knew that, didn't we?
Soldier survives attack; captures, medically treats sniper
Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer is a native of Mendon, N.Y.
During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was filmed by the insurgents.
Tschiderer, with E Troop, 101st Saber Cavalry Division, attached to 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was knocked to the ground from the impact, but he popped right back up, took cover and located the enemy's position.
After tracking down the now-wounded sniper with a team from B Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs and gave medical aid to the terrorist who'd tried to kill him just minutes before.
See the video on Army Times.
Ok, this is funny. You heard of the website from the Brits regarding the London bombings called We're Not Afraid.com? Well someone is lampooning it with i am f*cking terrified.com . I know this shouldn't be funny. I know I shouldn't be laughing. But just check out the pictures on the second link. OMG!!! Hilarious. via my buddy dave at malungtvnews.
A Different War.
Ah, the culture wars. You just have to love it.
Logo is a new gay TV channel on Viacom basic cable that began on June 30th with sponsorship by companies like Miller Lite, Motorola, and Orbitz. Slate's article on it has the new network's president, Brian Graden, assuring us that the channel will "steer clear of highly sexualized content." In fact the article's author found only one slightly dirty moment when a travel show gave the name of an Amsterdam hotel designed specifically for gay men interested in bondage, then asked naughtily, "How do you say 'ouch' in Dutch?"
I mean come on....when your 8 yr old comes across this flipping channels he won't even know what bondage is. Why worry????
I also love how the article calls Concerned Women For America (a conservative women's organization) who is opposing the channel, "a group." I believe that CWA has 3 or 4 times the membership of NOW. I bet you haven't heard of them though, huh? Such is the media's notion that NOW is the only women's group in the country. I wonder if Slate would call NOW "a group?"
And speaking of women's groups. Did you hear about NARAL's party in Seattle, Washington yesterday? It was called "Screw Abstinence." Isn't that a such a cute lil play on words there???
The NARAL flier reads, “Come laugh, learn, socialize and buck the system.” Partygoers will be treated to "tips on “Sexy Safer Sex” by “purveyors of adult toys,” see a theatre troupe perform a sex-ed class for adults, and sip on “Screw Driver” alcoholic beverages."
A new commenter from Stop the ACLU says that "...Reason writer Charles Oliver was taken aback when he learned from John Powell, the Union’s national legal director, that he considered abortion to be the ACLU’s number one priority; the defense of the First Amendment, the alleged heart and soul of the ACLU’s mission, was listed third, after civil rights." (emphasis mine)
If this is a war, we are losing my friends. Republicans in power or not.
I can't decide whether to take my little boys to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I was watching some previews and it looks creepy to me. Watching Johnny Depp (who I think is an excellent actor, even though in real life a loon) keeps me thinking that Edward Sissorhands grew up to become Willy Wonka.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Below is the petition that MoveOn.org is asking people to sign and send to their Senators....
| FULL TEXT OF THE PETITION TO: (Your senators) FROM: (Your Name and Email) SUBJECT: Protect our rights __________ Dear senator, (Your personal note) The Senate must stand up to President Bush and demand a Supreme Court nominee who will protect the rights and freedoms of the American people. |  |
I don't know about you but I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!!!! How dare they demand someone who will protect the rights and freedoms of the American people!! If Bush doesn't nominate someone who will create a police state and take away my free speech rights, gun ownership rights, private property rights...then I WILL PROTEST!!!! (unless I lose that right with the new Supreme Court Judge that is) I hope the Senators pay NO attention to this outrageous demand!!!!! It is just over the top. I mean really.
"I wish someone would kill me; that way I could hang out in the cemetery ALL the time, instead of just on weekends." via Caption This!
Excellent article by an Iraqi about the London bombings and Arab leaders reactions.
Warning!!
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is demanding warning labels on the sides of soda cans. CSPI wants the FDA to warn us that drinking soda causes obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, and osteoperosis.
Other demands are:
Warning labels embedded in Oreos to warn us that the little chocolate devils cause fat and mouth watering pleasure.
Warning labels on beds to warn us that sleeping too much can cause laziness AND that laying down on one with your loved one may cause babies.
Warning labels on bathtubs to warn us that taking hot baths may cause us to miss phone calls.
Warning labels on phones to warn us that in talking too much on one may cause us to gossip.
Warning labels on movie stars such as Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt to warn us that watching their movies may cause us to lust.
Warning labels on computers to warn us that blogging may cause one to neglect the laundry.
If you see a bunch of people who look like darker and retarded versions of Inspector Gadget around the White House around 2:30pm today, now you will know why.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Report It My Way Or The Highway!
Oh, this is really good. What happens when Mark Yost, an editor at Knight Ridder is critical of media coverage of the Iraq war (Trust me when I say he is not a conservative) and is blasted by Steve Lovelady, the managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review Daily and then Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine e-mails them to see if there can be a discussion about the media coverage? Well, you get a honest look at the "objective" journalism coming out of Columbia, of course. I guess Steve didn't figure Jeff was going to post his e-mails. As Jeff Jarvis points out, you would think the EDITOR of Columbia Journalism Review Daily might enjoy a spirited debate. But....nooooooooo. The liberal fangs come out showing us that there really is no such thing as objective journalism these days.
What made Lovelady so angry? Well, Mark Yost betrayed the media! He had been in lockstep before!! He actually wondered why the media was not covering the good news stories of Iraq.
Steve Lovelady is so angry that he can't seem to stop e-mailing Jeff Jarvis about it! Just read the link. It tells you all you need to know about journalism these days.
Greyhawk reminds us--They kill their own children.
Breaking down the (Yawn) Karl Rove/Valerie Plame story.
We here in Texas are use to the insane rantings of Molly Ivins. At least she apologized this time.
If It Quacks Like A Terrorist.....
The Guardian has this in one of it's stories on the terrorist bombings in London:
"Early reports of the blasts on the BBC's website mentioned possible terrorist involvement but the stories were later changed to describe the perpetrators as "bombers" rather than "terrorists".
Although a spokesman said the word "terrorist" was not banned from the BBC, its language guidelines state that "careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments" should be avoided and that "the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding" and should be "avoided"."
Is this just an insane example of political correctness or a deliberate effort to avoid adding support to the war on terror? And who the hell thinks we should try "an aid to understanding?" Oh, we understand alright. We understand that these are fanatics determined to kill innocents. They use terror as their main weapon. That is why we call them TERRORISTS!!! Yeah, this is a value judgment. Call them what they ARE.
The idiots at the BBC should even understand that.
I'm Back!!
It is sooo good to be home. I am just now catching up on the news. It is interesting to hear from family members who don't have the interest in politics that I do. They see these stories like Rove and Durbin and Gitmo as boring and blown out of proportion for political reasons.
My heart goes out to the people of London who lost loved ones in the terrorist bombings. I am amazed that something similar hasn't happened here. I am also convinced that the reason it hasn't happened is because of the Patriot Act and rounding up those who would do us harm and putting them in Gitmo. I have heard that European news focus on America's supposed mistakes. I am curious to see if the bombings will force the media to focus on the real enemy here, the terrorists.
I want to emphasis something that BigDog had in the previous post that I don't think should be missed. The interview between Ron Reagan and Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens is a liberal that truly gets it when it comes to terror.
The argument should be read. But here are some key points that Hitchen's made:
"...these movements had taken over Afghanistan, had very nearly taken over Algeria, in a extremely bloody war which actually was eventually won by Algerian society. They had sent death squads to try and kill my friend Salman Rushdie, for the offense of writing a novel in England. They had sent death squads to Austria and Germany, the Iranians had, for example, to try and kill Kurdish Muslim leaders there. If you make the mistake that I thought I heard you making just before we came on the air, of attributing rationality or a motive to this, and to say that it's about anything but itself, you make a great mistake, and you end up where you ended up, saying that the cause of terrorism is fighting against it, the root cause, I mean. Now, you even said, extraordinarily to me, that there was no terrorist problem in Iraq before 2003. Do you know nothing about the subject at all? Do you wonder how Mr. Zarqawi got there under the rule of Saddam Hussein? Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal?"
"Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal, the most wanted man in the world, who was sheltered in Baghdad? The man who pushed Leon Klinghoffer off the boat, was sheltered by Saddam Hussein. The man who blew up the World Trade Center in 1993 was sheltered by Saddam Hussein, and you have the nerve to say that terrorism is caused by resisting it? And by deposing governments that endorse it?"
"When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?"
How can America know so little as well? Because they are constantly thrown stories that don't matter (like the Michael Jackson case) and are not given the important information because it isn't "exciting."
Thanks to BigDog for helping me out here!
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Just when you thought it was safe.....
Rightwingsparkle Not Blogging, Day 11
Been away. Lets round up some news
Leaked No 10 dossier reveals Al-Qaeda’s British recruits
"AL-QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle-class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal. "
Some folks blather about the "root causes" of terrorism, a few are sincerely trying to figure out the enemy and therefore how best to defeat them. Mostly, imo, the "Root Causes Caucas" are rationalizing their own chickenshit need to appease terrorists in hopes they will go away.
One of the sillier "root causes" notions is that poverty creates terror. Nonsense. Poor people are too busy feeding their families and putting clothes on the backs of their children. No, terrorism germinates among the affluent, people with the leisure to join causes to give some kind of meaning to their lives.
Terrorists operate in impoverished places. Waltz in with cash and armed men - who is going to stop you? Poor people are merely the first victims of terrorist schemes. They set up camps, buy.... er, "marry" some local chief's daughter to insure his compliance... er, loyalty, and use the locals for cover and cannon fodder.
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Jihad Is Knocking
"Already the standard narrative is being trotted out: evildoers created by what the New York Times predictably called the “root causes of terrorism”: autocracy, or economic stagnation, or Palestinian suffering, or globalization's dislocations, or Western historical sins, or the war in Iraq (the cause will depend on the political prejudices of the pundit) have “hijacked” Islam and distorted its peaceful message. And now they are using Islam to justify murder in order to further their own ambitions or dysfunctional psychic needs. Given this explanation, so the story goes, we must be careful not to demonize all Muslims and assure them that we respect their religion and culture. The tale is then wrapped up with fierce threats against the terrorists and protestations of admiration for Islam."
"Believing this delusion requires that one ignores fourteen centuries of Islamic jihad against the West, a war of conquest and colonization ratified by centuries of Islamic theology and jurisprudence. Indeed, what we call Islamic radicals are in fact Islamic traditionalists; it is the so-called “moderates” — those wanting to compromise Islam so it can coexist with Western ideas such as secular government, separation of church and state, and human rights — who are the radicals and innovators. The terrorists are simply fulfilling the traditional and orthodox command of their religion to battle the infidels who resist the revelation of Mohammed and the global socio-political order mandated by Islam."
How to Lose a War
"Autocratic regimes, statist economies, gender apartheid, corruption, the absence of a free press — all that and more retard economic growth from the Gulf to Morocco. In response, theocratic regimes like the Taliban and the Iranian mullocracy blame the West for their own self-inflicted misery and inadequacies. But more often, clever dictators such as a Baathist Saddam, the Saudi Royal family, an Egyptian kleptocracy, or the Pakistani military regime allow Islamicists some rein, if not covert support, to deflect blame from their own failures onto the United States and the "Jews."
"A shamed Islamic street — ill-housed, ill-fed, and ill-informed — is nourished on the mythology that a purer creed and a return to the 8th century alone can reclaim past glories of the caliphate, and stop the decadent intrusion of Western consumerism and popular culture"
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The wrong thing to do in the face of terror:
Please Appease Me
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Retrieving bodies is nightmare for London rescuers
"Retrieval teams working deep underground to recover bodies after the London bomb attacks are battling ghastly conditions that one expert compared to a "foetid drain."
Uncommon devotion to duty is heroism.
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Sauerkraut Wrestling Proposed For Lawmakers
"If New Ulm's mayor gets his way, the governor and legislative leaders will duke out their differences in a wrestling ring filled with sauerkraut."
I believe Arizona settles election ties by cutting cards. More disputes should be settled by some unconventional competition instead of letting it fester. Entertaining too.
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Debunking 8 Anti-War Myths About The Conflict In Iraq
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The Left doesn't support the troops and should admit it
"In order to understand this, we need to first have a working definition of the term "support the troops." Presumably it means that one supports what the troops are doing and rooting for them to succeed. What else could "support the troops" mean? If you say, for example, that you support the Yankees or the Dodgers, we assume it means you want them to win."
" But most of the Left does not want the troops to win in Iraq. The Left's message is this: "You troops may think you are winning; you may think you are doing good and moral things in Iraq; you may believe you are fighting the worst human beings of our age and protecting us against the scourge of Islamic terror. But we on the Left believe none of that. We believe this war is being fought for oil and for Halliburton and other corporations; we believe you are waging a war that is both illegal and immoral; we believe you have invaded a country for no good reason and have killed a hundred thousand Iraqis [the Left's generally mentioned number] for no good reason; but, hey, we sure do support you."
"Honest people on the Left need to understand that the two positions are not reconcilable"
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A leftist who does actually support the troops:
Foreign Service
"The Iraqi civilians were very nice to us again, even though Samarra had a lot of insurgents for much of my time there. And the kids love us, especially the little girls, who seem to feel all this democratic change will be good for them in particular. The whole ‘mission’ is starting to feel like Peace Corps work, albeit you still have to be well armed. I am a political left-winger on most things, but on the Middle East business I think we are doing the right thing, mainly because that’s what all these Iraqi civilians kept telling me. Not sure why you don’t hear that kind of stuff on the media, except that most civilians there would consider it suicide to say good things about Americans on-camera.”
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Homeowner thwarts break-in with handgun - Good man. Give him a medal.
Trotsy's Pick - Dispute over the weapon used to kill Trotsky. Weird
The Right Hates Freedom & America - Ooooo! Ouch.
44-car train abandondoned - Unions.....
Ron Reagan gets spanked
Rescuing the Laws of War - Military academic papers often strike me as more.... objective