One man's view of the world, from the top of this great big rock somewhere in the middle of God's Country, with an eye toward freedom....or at least some way to get back down without goin' over the edge.

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Location: West Virginia, United States

Former U.S. Army, SPC E-4, Veteran of Operation Desert Storm. If you are or have ever been a soldier, you have friends in my house.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

"He Who Saves One Life, Saves The World Entire"

That is a quote from the Talmud, the collection of Rabbinic writings which laid the groundwork of the principles of Judaism. It was used in the movie "Schindler's List" to laud the good works of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman whose efforts to save people that his own fatherland saw as damned and depraved garnered world-wide attention in the aftermath of the Holocaust of WWII.

Terry Schindler (yes, I said SCHINDLER, not SCHIAVO---if ever a marriage seemed like a sham, it's hers) is one woman whose life-and-death struggle has itself captured the world's attention.

Anyone else catching the irony here?

Want a little more? Well, here you go.....

It has been said that the Nazis' chosen subjects for experimentation and extermination were thought of---and even literally referred to---as "unworthy lives".

But now, a hospice and several medical professionals---IN GERMANY---have pledged their services to the Schindler family without thought to the cost.
That's right, friends...German doctors and nurses have publicly volunteered to dedicate their expertise to Terry's care and rehabilitation FREE OF CHARGE.

Sounds like pretty worthy treatment to me.

All they have to do...is get through one seriously conflicted lawyer, one unbelievably self-centered judge, and one "husband" who is acting for all the world like he has something rather larger at stake here than just his wife’s “right to die”.

Call me a kook, folks...but this guy is trying to hide something.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Bloggin' Around: Friday, March 25

For those who have missed me this past week or so, my apologies. The Family and I had us a bit of a vacation.
Awright, awright, we had a pretty big vacation. Thankfully, the Magic Kingdom still stands, despite our best efforts to the contrary. Heck, even taking down the flag didn't do it.

Anyway, we're back after the 5-day siege, rested and ready to jump back into the fray....
Yeah, right. I'm still recovering from the drive. :O)

Onward.

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Michelle Malkin sounds off on why the MSM is NOT sounding off on that somewhat high-smelling memo that's been going around....and about another matter altogether, courtesy of Redstate, concerning the FEC's apparent attempt to do something about all us annoying pajama people. (Folks, if you run a blog, or just really like reading 'em....READ THIS NOW.)

LGF has, strangely enough, found someone at MIT with a less-than-patriotic view of things in Iraq. (Looks to me like the result of one too many all-night crams while listening to Pink Floyd, but hey---what do I know?)

Sworn Enemy shows us one place where euthanasia could actually do some good, a road map to the Land of the Left drawn by one who knows the territory, and a Brit trying to help us cowboy types understand gun control. (You there in the back....yes, you...stop that sniggering or leave the room!)

And finally (just 'cause I'm feeling lazy and not quite back on track yet), check out the Dawn Patrol over at the Mudville Gazette.....Mrs. G whips up a pretty tasty breakfast report.

You have your orders. Stander out.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Buffalo-ed: Part II (or, What Happens When You DO Drink the Kool-Aid)

Let's recap for a moment, shall we?

We know that Ward Churchill's claim to Indian heritage has Indians crying "foul"...
We know that his claim to being a serious artist have a lot of people crying "foul"...
....and we know he has a blind hairdresser. (Sorry, but come on. Look at the guy.)

So, what's left for him to fake now, you ask?

That's right, folks....HIS ESSAYS!

And on top of all that, despite all the brouhaha and bad press he's caused the University of Colorado...he actually has the balls to demand a cash payoff if he is to leave the university's payroll.

But the really sad part of all this?

THE UNIVERSITY IS ACTUALLY CONSIDERING IT.

No kidding. Some of these people actually still seem to think he's worth paying.

1). Approach brick wall.
2). Bang head sharply on brick wall.
3). Repeat Step 2 as needed until voices in head stop screaming...

Saturday, March 12, 2005

What Price Oil? (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hug a Tree)

I don't know about anyone else, y'all, but I'm confused by something.

If there was a way to bring gas prices down, provide more power, heat and fuel to the taxpaying residents of this great nation, and not be nearly so dependent on other nations for our energy needs... I would think we'd all be for it.

I found a bunch of places to check for the facts on this. Here's some of them (one of them being the official site of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). They seem to lay out a pretty good case for using a VERY small chunk of the ANWR to do just that, or at least get us started in that direction, without affecting the nearby environment all that much. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it seems to me that in terms of our own energy resources, we're starting to run out of other options.

So, seriously....what's stopping us?

Take a wild guess.

Yep. The usual suspects. The ones who can't pull their heads outta their backpacks long enough to realize that the world doesn't revolve solely around what they want...but what we all need.

Well, how's this for an idea.....Ask the people who know best.

Bloggin' Around: Saturday, March 12th

Man, Blackfive is just bloggin' his buns off today...a thumbs-up to Roger Ebert, UAW-ers trying to piss off Marines in Detroit (you'd think they'd be more careful, wouldn'tcha?), a really GOOD way to put our tax dollars to use in Illinois, and a university that actually APPRECIATES veterans (hey, Detroit---you gettin' all this?)

Slaglerock chimes in with the upside of getting held up at the airport, and a nasty little story about a monkey who learns to watch what he eats....uh, sort of.....

Val over at Babalu Blog reveals just how "fiscally responsible" Fidel Castro can be when it comes to his people's "healthcare" needs.

And finally, Oriental Redneck wonders aloud:
1) why it took so long for someone to issue a fatwa against Uncle Osama (and---wouldja believe it---from SPAIN???),
2) why a South Korean official kissing the collective fifth-point-of-contact of his Northern "brethren" is so surprising,
3) why the president of Scripps College seems to have a beef with ROTC cadets going out for a run, and
4) ......what the...."Heteronormative"?!?

You have your orders.

Friday, March 11, 2005

Buffalo-ed (or, What Happens When You Don't Drink the Kool-Aid)

Man, are these guys even trying to LOOK tolerant anymore?

The University of Colorado is apparently going for the grand bull moose ribbon in the 2005 Useful Idiot Awards.

They hem and haw and drag their feet ever more slowly in their "deliberations" on the fate of their prized thunder-bird....but, oh NO! Someone said "GOD!" Quick---fire him before somebody hears!!

Apparently, even having two adopted black children can't keep Prof. Phil Mitchell from being branded as a racist and a bigot.

That's right, friends....things have finally come full circle.

"Red man" speak with forked tongue, walk through 100 arrows without a scratch.
White man walk one mile on straight path, become human pin-cushion.

Tip o'the rock to Sworn Enemy for the link-up.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Good People: Dr. Abdallah Al-Jibouri

Today, I have decided to begin a new regular (hopefully) segment dedicated to those individuals who have chosen, regardless of the circumstances, to make a positive difference in the world around them. I have entitled this new segment simply "Good People" in honor of my grandmother, who once told me straight up, upon meeting my future wife, that "she's good people". (Good call, Grandma.)

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For this inaugural edition, I am indebted to a fine lady who goes by the nom de guerre SupeDuJour (tip o'the rock to ye, lassie) for pointing me to a recent article in the Washington Times.

The article concerns a dentist living in Manchester, England, who also happened to be an Iraqi expatriate, exiled from his home for 20 years or so.

One day, he took a trip back to Iraq to see how his mother was doing, and how things were in his hometown now that Saddam was gone...

...and eventually became governor of one of the most dangerous regions in Iraq's Sunni Triangle.

I'll leave the rest of the exposition to the article, except to say that he has since earned the honorary brotherhood of the commander of the U.S. 3rd Brigade Combat Team, and has had someone try to kill him 14 times thus far....so you just KNOW he's doing something right.

Ladies and gentlemen---Dr. Abdallah Al-Jibouri. Give 'im a hand, won't you? He's sure giving his countrymen one.

In my book, that makes him "Good People".

Monday, March 07, 2005

"Me Love You Long Time": Adventures of a News Whore

Friends, I must apologize in advance....because of the nature of my work schedule, I don't always get to keep up with things on a very timely basis, so you all may have heard of this story already. (Bear with me, faithful ones. I'll get caught up eventually.) I missed the little tidbit below, along with several other posts this week by Jason Van Steenwyk of CounterColumn, who is one of the most on-point newsroom watchdogs I have yet come across. He has many recent posts worth reading, but I focused on one in particular from a few days ago...

Disclaimer: If there are young children in the audience, please remove them from the theater at this time. Don't worry....I won't start without you.

(tick, tock, tick, tock....)

All right, everybody ready? Strap yourselves in....this ride's gonna be a little rough.

The post I just linked to, dated March 3rd, concerns a piece written by LA Times staff writer Barbara Demick, in which she interviews a North Korean "businessman" in a North Korea-owned karaoke club in Beijing. The picture he paints of his homeland seems rather brighter and sunnier than that portrayed in a recent U.S. Committee on Human Rights report, several lines of which are included in the post for comparison....

....and Ms. Demick would appear to be just fine with that.

Well, Jason has a few words for Ms. Demick, and I think I can safely say that none of them are "happy birthday".

Proceed with caution, gentle reader. This one is not for the easily offended.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Eason Jordan, Call On Line Two....

I was going to comment on this earlier (rea-a-a-ahhhly I was), but Baldilocks is already all over it....

AP: Wounded Italian Journalist Returns Home

As one might expect from the AP, the crux of the story is not so much that she's home, but that she's wounded....and, more important in their eyes, why.

In a nutshell, as I understand it...Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who had been held hostage by kidnappers in Iraq, was recently released by her abductors. While making its way homeward, the car she was riding in attempted to speed through a US checkpoint. The driver apparently ignored all attempts by the soldiers therein to get him to slow down. At that point, AS IS POLICY WHEN A CAR REFUSES TO SLOW DOWN AT A CHECKPOINT, the soldiers opened fire at the car's engine block.
In the aftermath---and ONLY then---the soldiers were able to identify the car's occupants as the Italian former hostage and her agent escort, who died while shielding her from the worst of the gunfire.

Of course, the press being what it is, this incident gets top billing.

ROME (AP) -- Draped in a blanket and apparently hooked up to an intravenous drip, former hostage Giuliana Sgrena was carried off a plane upon returning from Iraq on Saturday, hours after American troops fired on the car taking her to Baghdad's airport, wounding her and killing the Italian intelligence officer protecting her.....

....The U.S. military said the car she was riding in after her release was speeding as it approached a coalition checkpoint in western Baghdad on its way to the airport. Soldiers shot into the engine block only after trying to warn the driver to stop by "hand and arm signals, flashing white lights and firing warning shots," the military said.
U.S. troops took Sgrena to an American military hospital in Iraq, where shrapnel was removed from her left shoulder. The shrapnel removed from Sgrena's shoulder may have been a fragment of the fire that killed Calipari, he said.


And I think I finally figured out why.

See, here's what we've been doing wrong this whole time. Apparently, when you harm innocent civilians by ACCIDENT, you get called on the carpet (even when you own up to it and try to fix it post-haste).

The ones that get away with it....are the ones who do it DELIBERATELY.

If I am reading the article from New Zealand correctly, the only real reason anything at all is being done about the claims of sexual abuse in the Congo, is because OUR money will become involved if nothing is done:

Hearings into the Congo scandal began this week in the United States Congress. A Republican representative from New Jersey, Christopher Smith, is introducing a bill to that would threaten to withhold American funds from UN peacekeeping missions unless all countries contributing soldiers to those missions have procedures in place to instantly prosecute soldiers accused of sexual misconduct. Because the US accounts for about a quarter of the UN's peacekeeping budget, the bill could have a powerful impact.

As if anything else would get their attention.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Bloggin' Around -- Wednesday, March 2nd

Greyhawk of The Mudville Gazette relates a story of Vietnam vets who are now serving again in Iraq. Share the love, y'all.

Among other things today, Ryan of Cigars in the Sand makes a point about 9/11 intelligence issues, shows us the Iraqi TOTUS and a great view from "his" new pool... and sounds the mourning call for a Chicago judge who has apparently paid a horrible price for daring to hold someone in contempt of court one day.

Orson Scott Card (yes, THE Orson Scott Card) shares a theory which might explain why so many people in this country always want more than they have. (Tip o'the rock to Baldilocks, where I found the link.)

Ann Althouse calls in an enthused thumbs-up for getting to see what REALLY goes on in the NY art scene, assesses Prince Charles' recent debut as an international food critic, and gives us yet ANOTHER reason to ignore...lessee, had it in my notes right here....oh yeah, that fake Indian guy who thinks he's Winston Churchill. (....waitaminnit, I musta wrote that down wrong...)

And finally, Free Will shines the spotlight on something rather frightening (and to some, perhaps hideously familiar) going on with a goodly chunk of Russia's youth....folks, if this story is correct, it is NOT good.

You have your orders. Roger, out.

The Courtship of Elian's Father

Folks, we all already knew something was WAY wrong with the whole Elian Gonzalez thing when he was forcibly ejected from his family's house in Florida and, eventually, the country. We saw that no one intimate with the family wanted any of that to happen...

Except, we were told, his father. We were told that his father wanted custody of him. We were told that his father wanted him back in Cuba. We were told that that was where he belonged. We were told that since his mother was dead, his father was the figure of authority in this case, and that this was what he wanted.

What we were NOT told...by ANYONE....was that the INS knew different. And stomped on it.

This installment comes to you courtesy of Val Prieto at Babalu Blog, a Cuban-American who knows better than most about things like this. You can find the whole story there.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Bloggin' Around -- Tuesday, March 1st

Herewith, I begin a category of posts rounding up the content of several blogs which I have magnanimously deemed worthy of extra attention. (Nawww...I don't think very highly of myself, now do I?)
Some of these are a couple of days old, so bear with me...I'm a little new at this "roundup" thing, but I'll get there.

----

Blackfive tells a story of cooperation and brotherhood in Iraq that you certainly won't be seeing in the MSM anytime soon.

General Sistah Baldilocks supplies a smattering of European items, including an article by Mark Steyn explaining why he thinks Europe as we know it is on the ropes.

Sworn Enemy sounds off on the ever-shifting fate of Terry Schiavo. This post includes a link to his friend Beth, whom he credits with just about the best Terri coverage on the 'sphere. I went to take a look at her, and I'd say he's right.

The terminally-SSSMMMOKIN' Michelle Malkin has three stories so far today:
1) the effort to hold Jean-Claude Kerry to his promise to sign that damn form and get it over with,
2) "How do you solve a problem like Padilla...." (set to a tune from "The Sound Of Music", since you asked), and
3) the story of Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, and his family's efforts to preserve access to his e-mail accounts after his death.

Professor Mike Adams sends the word around that finally....FINALLY....students are trying to call a college's leadership on the carpet to answer for regulating "free speech" on campus.

And finally...."WAR! Huh! (good God, y'all) What is it good for?"
The fine folks at Wizbang seem to have an answer.

That'll do for now. See ya on the comeback.