No Pasarant! brings us this. A fact we should NEVER forget:

"BBC's retiring Stephen Sackur.
As he hangs up the microphone of BBC foreign correspondent, Sackur brings with him a host of powerful memories, one of the very strongest coming from Iraq.

"A country especially dear to me, as my wife's homeland. It was there I saw the most distressing sight of my life. Men and women clawing at the earth, uncovering the first of the mass graves discovered after the fall of Saddam Hussenin.

Thousands of stinking corpses came out of the ground that day. I saw infants with bullet holes blown through their skulls. I was the only reporter there. I sensed in that Iraqi field that I was a necessary witness, in the right place at the right time." via Mudville

Our soldiers have died, but they sure as hell haven't died in vain. This was a MONSTER we took down. A monster who had bred 2 monster sons. God knows what we saved that region from, not to mention the world.

To spank or not to spank....

On Fox News they just showed a five year old having a temper tantrum in class (someone was videotaping, I guess so they wouldn't be sued by the parents) The little girl is tearing things off the walls and swinging fists at the teacher.

Finally a cop comes in and HANDCUFFS her!! Thats right, a five year old handcuffed!!! This is where we are???

I remember being in 2nd grade and having the meanest teacher. Mrs. McDonald. If we so much as SPOKE at the wrong time you were asked to stay after school. (I tend to speak alot) She would march us into a closet and spank us with a paddle. AWFUL! But, we obeyed her. By the end of Sept. when Mrs. McDonald said jump, WE JUMPED. When she said "Be quiet!" We WERE. There was never any classroom disruptions or problems.

Now I am not saying we should go back to letting teachers spank, but only because I don't trust public school teachers anymore. One used to be able to know the teacher well and know that she held pretty much the same basic values as you did. Not so now. And thats too bad, because children want to be shown how to control themselves. They really do.

Most of the time other forms of punishment work. But every once in a while and with some kids, they need to have a good spank and that is all there is to it. Because you can't tell me it's better or more humane to HANDCUFF them. Geeze!

(And no, for the record, I never spanked my kids, I expected my hubby to do it because that's how it was done at my house. He wouldn't, so I had to work hard at alternatives. Don't even get me started talking about it)

The Guardian brings us this:

"Call it Colin Powell's revenge. The former US secretary of state has been putting the knife into John Bolton, the administration's rottweiler and the man nominated by George Bush to represent the US at the UN.
In very similar stories, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported today that Powell has been telling moderate Republicans on the senate foreign relations committee that Bolton is a bad choice. Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, went so far as to tell the New York Times that Bolton would be an "abysmal ambassador".

Why do we Republicans always do this to ourselves? You never see Democrats back stab each other. I will give them that. They are loyal. Getting serviced by an intern at the white house? No problem. Have a gay prostitution ring being run out of your house and you are a Congressman. Thats OK! Have a illegimate child with someone who works in your nonprofit while the wife and mother of your five children handles it with grace? Sure! Why not???? Congressional investigation into your finances? Who cares?

Seriously, Republicans just turn and run or back stab. It is really starting to make me sick. Who needs enemies when you have friends like these??

So this is how you get a Rightalk Radio job......

I found this SUPER SECRET shot of some of our bloggers night job! From your left to right. Jeff at Protein Wisdom, Bill at INDC Journal, and Ace From Ace Of Spades HQ. Ace was a bit of surprise I have to admit.

Click here for larger image. You seriously need to see the larger pic.

You've heard of twins trading places like for a test, right? Well this has a political spin on it. You won't believe it. via The Obscure Store.

This is so stupid a nd goofy, it's funny.via The Biomes Blog

Wizbang has this news story:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Police said they arrested a man for spitting on two-time Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda during a book-signing stop in Kansas City Tuesday night.
Fonda, 67, spoke at Unity Temple, in The Plaza shopping district, about her new best-selling book, "My Life So Far," and her new movie with Jennifer Lopez called "Monster-In-Law."
At about 9 p.m., police said, a man who had been waiting in line for about 90 minutes, passed a book to Fonda and then spit a large amount of tobacco juice into her face.
Michael A. Smith, 54, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, which is a city charge.

This is unacceptable. I don't care who you disagree with, people with any sort of decency do not do things like spit in people's faces. Just like with this whole liberal pie throwing thing that has been going on. I understand people's feelings of outrage over something, but to act like a idiot does not speak well of your cause.

Let's have a caption contest for our old Russian leader, shall we?

I thought ya'll were all funny, so I let my son decide the top 3.

"I thought they said Martha Stewart was going to be on Sirius? What's this P Diddy crap I'm listening to??"-Barry

Gorbie field tests the new Russian "hands free" mouse for his laptop.-PP

"...that's two McBorshts, a Gulag McGoulash, and a chocolate shake. Would you like fries with that?"- Wonderduck

Ok, Ok,....Enough about the Pope, but how about one more thing if it's HILARIOUS?

Beautiful Atrocities brings us:

"VATICAN SHOCKER: NEW POPE IS CATHOLIC"

"Passed over: Deepak Chopra & Maya Angelou."

Legions of deeply spiritual media pundits, academics, & Hollywood celebrities expressed dismay over the Vatican's controversial decision to elect a Catholic as the new Pope." READ THE REST.

I don't know about you, but I certainly have never faked it.

An Interview With 2Slick.......

For those of you who don't know, 2Slick is a "Former Army Black Hawk Pilot. Deployed to Iraq with the 101st Airborne from Feb '03 to Jan '04 (OIF 1), and Kuwait (with 3rd Army HQ) from Aug '04 to Jan '05." (As described on his blog) He is also a contributer to the book, "IRAQ: Providing Hope" listed on his website.
His blog was intensely fascinating and informative to read while he was in Iraq, he was a 2004 Weblog Award finalist as well. (He also won an "award" on my site, but that's another story...;-)
I asked him when he returned if he would answer some questions. There were so many things I wanted to know about how things were over there. Here is the first part of that interview:

How did you decide to become a blackhawk helicopter pilot?

I knew I had a service obligation after West Point, and Army Aviation seemed like the most exciting way to go about it. My eyes held out just long enough to pass the first flight physical (I've been wearing glasses ever since), and my grades were good enough to get my first choice. Once I arrived at flight school, I trained on a Bell Jet Ranger (A civilian OH-58), and learned about the various airframes in the inventory- UH-60 (Black Hawk) was easily the choice for me- it's the most versitile and exciting aircraft in the fleet!

Can you describe your basic mission in Iraq?

Initially (during the invasion), I was a operations/logistics officer. I was focused on getting my brigade from Fort Campbell, KY to Kuwait, and then eventually into Iraq.

Once we settled into Mosul Airfield, I began to assume the Civil-Military Operations role for my brigade. I ended up leading the Mosul University project. Our job was to interface with the University Staff/Faculty, provide emergency assistance (initially), opportunity upgrades (based on how much money I had at any given time), security assistance, intel gathering, etc.

Describe your scariest mission or the one that affected you the most.

During the "major combat operations"- I led a small team of about 12 troops to the Mosul Train Station to await a rail shipment. It was my first night in Mosul (after having spent 2 weeks in Najaf and 3 weeks in Baghdad). The train was supposed to arrive at 9 pm. It didn't. We waited until 8 the next morning. All night long, shots rang out all over the place. Many bullets came very close to us. We could hear them cracking the air as they whizzed by us. It was pretty terrifying. And then there was a huge burst of gunfire at a Univeristy protest that I was trying to put down. That put a good scare in me. I know that many people experienced much worse, so I didn't think much of it. But I guess it was pretty scary in retrospect...

Regarding the politics of the war, how was the overall moral of the soldiers over there ?

Initially, we didn't really follow the public sentiment back home. We were just too busy doing our jobs. I'd say morale was very high while I was there. Only about 10% of the troops whined about being there- and those were usually the younger, less-educated, I-miss-my-mommy types.

What was yours and other soldiers major news sources?

Initially- letters from home. It eventually became the internet (which I'm sure it now- combined with Fox News).

What were the reporters on the ground like?

Usually friendly. Sometimes overbearing. Sometimes apologetic ("I know it sucks that we only cover the bad news, but we need paychecks, ya know?"). They pretty much dissappeared after the end of "major combat operations."

Did you see a change in the attitude of the people there the longer you were there? If so, explain how.

Yes. Initially they seemed skeptical and/or curious- just like us. The more we interacted with them, the more trusting and cordial they became. I think that usually happens when the Americans come to town. You'd never know it by watching the news, but it happens. I've seen it 3 times (Korea, Iraq, Kuwait)

After having been there and back home, do you still feel strongly about the rightness of us going into Iraq?

Absolutely. Just read my blog...


Stay tuned for the next installment sometime next week.

Resurrection Song brings us the opinion of Mark Morford of SFGate.com on our new Pope:


"See, most spiritually progressive peoples the world over were sort of hoping for a new pope who would recognize this as a historic opportunity, an unprecedented moment for the church to finally get with the times, modernize, shake off the dust and roll some bones and pry open some of those old dungeon doors and bring in some goddamn light.

You know what we wanted? More sex. Love. Good TV. Gender freedom. Better wine. Less sneering doctrine and homophobia and sexism and more fun with condoms and music and spiritual joy. But, instead, we got you."

Hmmm..... Mark wanted to get drunk, get laid (by either gender it seems), and have fun with condoms while listening to music or watching TV. Can't he do that without the Pope? Can't he do that even without the Catholic Church?

Here is my suggestion for Mark and all those who feel like him.

SHUTUP!

You know what? I love my Church. I don't want it to change and GUESS WHAT? I like a good glass of wine, I get plenty of sex, music, and spiritual joy and I do it all being a devout Catholic!!!!!!!!!!! That's right!!! I follow those so called "repressive" teachings and I HAVE A GOOD TIME!!!!

Now you can go do any ole sexual experiment you wish, drink, eat and be merry..... Just don't try and change my Church. Because what WE wanted was a humble holy man filled with compassion, but determined to keep the Church on the course of moral clarity. This isn't a club. This is a CHURCH. The Church tells us how to live morally, how to love God more fully. THAT"S IT'S JOB!

It's job is NOT to make you or Andrew Sullivan or anyone else feel better about your sexual proclivities or your partying habits. This Church has thousands of years of tradition and it's not perfect by any means, but it isn't going to change so people like you can have a good time and say that the Catholic Church says it's OK.

So go just ride another horse and try not to sound so stupid.

"Unfortuntely, in the rich countries like ours, we really don't give a damn."-Jimmy Carter, knocking what he says is stingy U.S. foreign aid via U.S. News and World Report.

EXCUSE ME? Just privately Americans have donated $989,189,234.32 for tsunami relief alone. $ total via You Big Mouth You. Need I go on about our billions sent out through the government?

Don't they make you just want to SCREAM?

Now this is what the liberals really want. Picture via U.S. News and World Report. (click on link or pic above to see a larger picture...(I hate HELLO)

Ace catches Andrew Sullivan being dishonest. SHOCK! I have long ago had enough of his whiny self involved rants that focus on nothing else but his sexuality. As Ace puts it:

"Sullivan: And I'll Keep Leaving the Church Until Someone Notices."

Really. Enough already. Do I really need to say it? If you don't like our Church, there are about 1500 dominations to choose from. Go for it big guy.

Why I Am Catholic. It Seems a Good Day to Explain.

Two years I ago I stood in Saint Peter's Square in awe of it's beauty and majesty that pictures do not do justice. I walked through the Sistine Chapel and attended Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica. I stood a few feet from Saint Peter's Bones under the Basilica. The history of our Church became very real to me then. But my journey to Rome began long ago.

Many have asked me about my conversion story from Baptist to Catholic. But I don't look at it that way. I look at my whole life as a spiritual journey to a place where I could be as close to God as possible.

I was not raised in a very religious home. My parents were Methodist and took us to Church once and awhile. As you may have read in my post about my father, they were Christians, but just didn't love organized religion too much.

I'm not sure I know why my desire to follow God came so strongly around 14 years old. Sitting in the front yard of my Grandma's house in the country, looking at the stars and praying , I was overcome with the spirit of God. I really don't know how to say it any other way. It is a feeling of pure joy. Indescribable really.

From that moment on there has never been a doubt in my mind or soul that God existed and is real. Even in times of deep darkness I have felt His comfort. I have experienced miracles and have come to believe that there is no way to understand or realize how much God loves us, how much He wants our happiness, and how much He suffers with us.

As I have also said before in another post, God and I always had different ideas on how I should live my life. I have argued with him like a daughter argues with her mother. I have been stubborn and stupid, but He has been faithful.

The Catholic Church teaches that we are all united in God, although imperfectly so. The more I learned about the history of Christianity the more I was drawn to Catholism. There was no doubt that man had messed up many times, as Christ knew that we would. But "the gates of hell did prevail against thee." And even now in the year 2005, the Church thrives will more than a billion followers. God's teachings are argued and distorted, but it is quite simply based on love. Such love.

I have a great love for the Protestant Church. I found Christ there, and for that I will always be grateful. But the more I learned about Catholism, the more I realized that this was what I needed to climb the mountain.

We all climb that mountain of faith, whether we realize it or not. Many of us fall and get bruised and hurt, many are lost on the mountain and cannot find their way. I chose the Catholic Church because I felt it gave me a map of that mountain. I climb and I suffer, but I hold fast to that map and I look at it every day to make sure I am on the right path.

My map is worn and torn and tattered but I shall never let it go, for it has brought me up the mountain this far and I have far to go.

"WE HAVE A POPE!"

That is the headline Fox News has at the bottom of the screen. The others have "A New Pope Elected."
I just find it interesting the difference. The Pope does belong to the world, even for those who don't care.

Chris Wallace says he has goose bumps. So do I.

The smoke is white, the bells are ringing, and there is joyful noise made unto the Lord in St. Peter's square.

It is Cardinal Ratzinger. That is who I had hoped for!!!

His name will be Pope Benedict XVI.

Praise God!

The Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Wild Ride Through Fantasy.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows the love/hate relationship I have with the magazine 'Vanity Fair.' This month's issue has the usual diatribes against conservatives. As you know, a more liberal slant on the war and Bush cannot be found anywhere else but in Vanity Fair. So I get to read the other side who assumes that all Vanity Fair readers are liberal Democrats and I am sure most of them are.

This month they feature an excerpt from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new book "Crimes Against Nature." Robert is an environmental lawyer, but this excerpt focuses mainly on showing us 2 things. One, how Bush LIED to us and how talk radio and rightwing media is brain washing the American people. Robert says:

"I believe, however, that the Democrats lost the presidential contest not because of a philosophical chasm between red and blue states but due to an information deficit caused by a breakdown in our national media."

He goes on to say:

"This threat to the flow of information, vital to democracy's survival, has been compounded in recent years by the growing power of the right-wing media that twist the news and deliberately deceive the public to advance their radical agenda."

Robert then goes on in the rest of the article to deliberately deceive VF readers to advance HIS radical agenda.

Funny how that works.

According to Robert, Fox News, Rush, Hannity, and even MSNBC are pretty much brain washing us all. He complains that 90% of talk radio is conservative while only 10% is "progressive." (We wouldn't want use the L-word, now would we?)

Radio, like other things, is a business. If people like what they hear they listen and advertisers pay. If people don't listen then the talk show goes away. It's that simple. People started listening to Rush for the same reason I did. It was nice to finally hear someone articulate what we conservatives believed and felt. I don't know about you, but I felt pretty alone before Rush came along. What Rush and others did was give voice to our beliefs and our frustrations and he even did it in an amusing way.

What Robert and others don't seem to understand is that Rush or other conservative voices didn't CHANGE our minds, they just agreed with us. That is why we liked listening. But as with so many liberals, Robert seems to think that Americans are pretty stupid and easily led.

He quotes statistic after statistic about what the American people "believed" about the war. For instance, Robert says that President Bush "failed to protect vulnerable terrorist targets at home-chemical plants, nuclear facilities, air-cargo carriers, and ports."

Really? Did I miss some attacks? Isn't it pretty obvious that Bush DID protect us? Newsflash to Robert. We haven't been attacked again since 9-11.

And one of the main reasons we haven't imo is because we rounded up the would be terrorists at Guantanamo. But Robert says that Bush "disgraced our nation and empowered tyrants with unpunished excesses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib."

Really? It looks to me like we have "tryrants" well in hand. I don't feel threatened by anyone, do you? But then, we are just stupid Americans as his statistics show. We believe this propaganda of the rightwing because we obviously can't think for ourselves.

Isn't this just so typical of liberals? They are the smart ones and everyone else is stupid. If you read the Pat Sajak piece I linked earlier you read a conversation he had with a liberal colleague that illustrates exactly that:

" I complained to another Liberal friend about some of the Left’s tone concerning the 2004 elections. I thought it insulting to hear those “red state” voters caricatured as red-necked rubes. My friend asked, “Well, don’t you think that people who live in large urban areas, who travel and read and speak other languages are better able to make informed choices?” It turns out it is superiority, not familiarity, which breeds contempt."

It's all about the superiority folks.

Robert seems to think there is "a vast rightwing conspiracy" that gives out false information. But in reality, we conservatives were just sick of being looked at as ignorant by the major networks and newspapers and were so relieved to have our views on the table that we FLOCKED to rightwing radio and TV.

Robert gives an example of us "winning" by the resignation of Pat Mitchell as president of PBS after "rightwing critics" got upset that she was allowing a cartoon episode with a lesbian couple. (she recanted and canceled the episode) Come on! How dare we get angry that a popular CARTOON watched by our children is trying to send an ADULT message to children that very well may go against our values and is totally inappropriate for the age group.

I mean really.

Who is really trying to spread propaganda here? You tell me.

Among the pundits Robert accuses of being in this VRWC is Peggy Noonan and Dick Morris for example. He cited John Stossel and Michael Savage as well. Could each of these people be more different? Even Brian Williams is included because he dared to give kudos to Rush Limbaugh recently.

The liberals probably do believe this VRWC. What they can't and won't face is that it is simply the marketplace of ideas and our ideas are winning now. Not because we lie or give out disinformation, but because our ideas are different from theirs and many seem to agree.

And that scares the hell out of them.

Kids and Swimming

Six Meat Buffet directed me to this story at Red State Rant. It's a story told by a patrol officer of a missing little 4 yr old boy the other day in Florida. Part of the story involves the little boy's dog and it reminded me of something that happened to me several years ago. Both stories remind us that life can be gone in an instant. Even when we are good parents.

I was putting my newborn daughter down for a nap. My 2 yr old son was out in the back yard with my dog. I was only gone a minute or two because she was so easy. I would just lay her down and she would crash. I walked back out in my yard and there was no sign of my son or dog. I ran around the house and saw the gate was open. He had never even tried to open the gate before, nor did it occur to me that he actually could open it. (it had that latch thing very high up) My son had been born being afraid of NOTHING. He never looked where he was going, he never stopped to ponder what might be over that edge, or care whether he got lost. He simply had NO FEAR. I tell him now that he is 18 that the only reason he lived was that I followed him around like a puppy the first 6 yrs of his life.

Anyway, the biggest problem was that we lived across the street from a lake. The houses that backed up to the lake didn't have fences for the obvious reason of enjoying the lake, so anyone could walk between the houses to get to the lake or walk just a bit down the street where it was open to the lake which had a sidewalk surrounding it. I knew the moment I saw the gate open that my son had headed straight for that lake. Probably running at full speed. Knowing my daughter was fine and asleep I raced through the house, grabbed my car keys and was out the front door looking in all directions. He was no where in sight. Some guys were working on a light pole a few feet away. I screamed at them that my 2 yr old was missing as I jumped in my car I pointed to each one and told each which direction to go look. (back through the other parts of the neighborhood just in case) Panic causes one to become extremely bossy and I can tell you they did exactly what I told them.

I went from 0 to 60 in about 2 seconds and was at the lakefront. I saw a woman and a child feeding the ducks by the lake bank. As I jumped out of my car I yelled at her and asked her if she had seen a little blonde boy. She pointed behind the houses that were situated across the street from my house. I ran around the houses like a race horse and there was my little boy, throwing rocks into the lake with my dog, Vince (An American Eskimo-Spitz) jumping around in front of him not letting him get close to the water. My knees nearly buckled under me, but I almost tackled the poor little guy when I got to him. I held him against me and cried and cried. Trying to calm myself down I started to tell him how he was to NEVER do that again and how dangerous the water was. In every instance that I had taken him to a pool, lake, or the beach he had run for the water without stopping and jumped right in. What made him stop this time? A fluffy white angel named Vince, I'm thinking.

The event jarred me so much that I taught my son how to swim myself within about 3 weeks of that incident. I taught my other 3 children to swim by the time each was 3 years old. You think you can't do it? You can. The earlier you start, the better. Get them used to the water as soon as possible and then when they are 2, you get in that water every day practicing until they know how to swim to the side. After mine all learned, I would playfully throw them in the water so they would learn what it was like to go under quickly and push themselves to the top and make it to the side. As the story the patrol officer shows, it's worth the effort to make sure your children can swim.

Last night I did a very rare thing for me. I actually went out to see a movie! The movie was "Hitch" with Will Smith. He plays a "love doctor" of sorts. I had seen previews and it seemed kinda silly, but one of my friends that had seen it said I would like it and I LOVED it!!!!!!!!! Seriously. It was a really cute and funny movie. Much better than I expected.

The girl who plays his love interest is a supermodel that I have seen in magazines, but she did a great job in this movie. I think she has a bright future in acting. Very natural (not to mention gorgeous) Anyway, I highly recommend you take your girlfriend or wife. It's the kind of movie that would get her in a lovey dovey mood. Really. But it isn't just a chick flick. It is really funny and I would bet many of you guys have been in similar situations. It has sort of a good message for women too about looking for the wrong things in guys. Anyway, go see it if you haven't.

As Partisan Pundit pointed out in the comment section of the Ann Coulter picture , this picture of Hillary on Time magazine's cover seems a MUCH nicer picture than Ann's, don't ya think???? Very Presidential. (OMG! I almost threw up typing that!) Heh.

You can even compare the two side by side here of Michael Moore's picture and Ann's.

UPDATE: Ace has some commentary from a professional photographer and some links showing the different pics of liberals vs conservatives in news magazines. He also made the same point I did about the shot of Clinton discussed in the comment section. He thinks it was Esquire magazine though. Someone find out because I just don't have the time. Anyway, read Ace's piece and links. It's looks at it pretty fairly.

You may have been reading recently about the "minutemen" who have been patrolling the Arizona border with Mexico. Diggers Realm has some good stuff on them, but THESE GUYS pictured above are from the ACLU to.... you know........ to make sure the minutemen don't do anything rough or maybe illegal to the illegal aliens trying to cross the border. So.....while being the ever watchful eye of democracy......... they get stoned. That's right. That is weed they are lighting up there. Gotta love it...Heh. via Eclipse Ramblings and Say Anything.

This is the photo discussed below. Ann wasn't happy with it.  

The Times photo of Ann Coulter shown and talked about at Ace's (with an update) has brought about a discussion over at Malkins about how the liberal (or maintstream...whatever...) news magazines tend to print the most unflattering photos of conservatives.

Big surprise there, huh?

Sometimes others say it so much better. Pat Sajak (of wheel of Fortune fame) pretty much nails it with the futility of arguing with liberals (which I seem to do quite a bit here.) Here is an excerpt. Read the whole thing. It's great. h/t BigDog

"Recently, for example, I was discussing the United Sates Supreme Court with on of my many Liberal friends out in Los Angeles when she said, without any discernable embarrassment, that Justice Anton Scalia was “worse than Hitler”. Realizing she wasn’t alive during World War II and perhaps she may have been absent on those days when her schoolmates were studying Nazism, I reminded her of some of Hitler’s more egregious crimes against humanity, suggesting she may have overstated the case. She had not; Scalia was worse. As I often did when my parents threatened to send me to my room, I let the conversation die."