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.

Friday, April 29, 2005

News Flash: Dave Barry Is Not Cruel

Come on now, folks....really. He's not.

He just knows grand-bull-moose column material when he sees it.

His READERS, however.....yikes. I'd hate to have THEM as hecklers.

I apologize in advance.

P.S. Anyone else notice that this lady's front lawn seems to be more richly appointed that a lot of other people's houses? Talk about sacrificing for your cause.

I say we check back with her around......oh, February or so. (Sorry...just couldn't stop myself.)

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Schoolhouse Crock: The Things Kids Do To Get A Day Off....

Friends...neighbors....we were all kids once.

We all remember the crazy stunts we pulled to try to get out of having to go to school.
Come on, own up. We ALL did. (Yeah, you in the back...I see you snickering back there.)

I know I went through a lot of effort to perfect my fake cough. Practiced in front of the mirror and everything. About half the time, it actually worked, too. (Please don't tell my mom.)

Well, folks, I think it is safe to say that the days of holding the thermometer up against a light bulb to fake a fever are officially behind us now....thanks to yet another "victim".

No, you didn't misread that article....some little chicklet decided that she wasn't happy at her school. (Interesting, I think, that the article made a point of mentioning that it was a Christian school. Wonder why?)
So she decided that the only thing to do to remedy the situation was to mail fake threatening letters to some of her black friends and classmates, and get a decent portion of the school's minority population evacuated and put up in hotels last week....all so she wouldn't have to attend classes there.
She confessed to the hoax and was arrested. She is now out on bond.

Who is this paragon of tolerance and selflessness, you ask? The one whose name "was not immediately released"?

Don't ask me, friends....ask Mary Mitchell, who is apparently ALL over this.

Now, according to Mary, there's even more to endear us to this little princess.
Now it comes out that Little Miss Victim has started telling people that "authorities" forced her to make the confession. (What...the MAN made her do it?)

All, it turns out, because she really wanted to attend a black school.

Oh yeah...did I mention that? SHE'S black, too.

Yep...she actually threatened those of her OWN skin color just to get away with playin' hooky.

I ask you...whatever happened to slippin' a frog into the teacher's desk when she wasn't looking?
Then the other kids would at least get a laugh out of it.

Tip o'the rock to Jim Quinn, from whom I heard about this on the radio while taking my own son to school this morning...who is gettin' pretty good at that cough trick himself, by the way.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

The Ears of Laura Mansfield (or "Pay No Attention to the Imam Behind the Curtain")

Tip o'the rock to my good friend SupeDuJour for pointing this one out to me.

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A little background first, if you will kindly humor me.

Not many people know this, but in the course of my brief military career, I picked up a smattering of the Arabic language. This came in very handy during my time in Operation Desert Storm, and aided me greatly in understanding the people I interacted with out there.

Since then, of course, I have had little enough cause to use what I learned that my skills in Arabic have deteriorated quite a bit. At this point, I think I can safely say that I now know just enough of the language to go out and get my butt kicked on the block in Dearborn, Michigan.

But then, I'm just some guy who learned a little Arabic.

Allow me, gentle reader, to introduce you to a professional....Laura Mansfield.

Laura has been working her way through the issues of the Middle East for a goodly chunk of the last twenty years or so (she lived there for seven of them), and as such knows better than just about anyone what makes the Arab world tick.
She has worked with such entities as the United States Embassy and USAID (US Agency for International Development), and is currently assistant director of the Northeast Intelligence Network.
In other words, if you want someone on your side who really knows what we're up against in the war on terror, she's your man.

This time, however, she didn't have to go to the Middle East to find Allah.
This time, Allah came to her....or at least his "representatives" did.

And they had some interesting things to say when they thought her back was turned.

Read on at the link above, and keep in mind....this happened HERE.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Bloggin' Around: Tuesday, April 26th

Jason Van Steenwyk of CounterColumn sounds off in answer to a challenge or two about how things are done in wartime, and gives the New York Times its usual richly-deserved pimp-slapping...this time it's about Humvees, armor, and flak vests and the Marines who love them. Slap away, son.

The Smallest Minority apparently doesn't like people who use their position to get over on the people they're supposed to be serving. Case in point---and a rather large case indeed: the sheriff of Broward County, Florida. (Man, is it something in the water down there?)
Oh---and be sure to check out the funnies while you're there...they got some good ones today.

Baldilocks shows us the OTHER side of that whole flap about the five-year-old who tore up her classroom a few days ago....you know, the one who got taken from her school in handcuffs and all? (Here it is for those who hadn't heard about this yet.) Apparently, there's a little more history to be found here, and our friendly neighborhood former-AF-Reservist has graciously done some digging for us.

The boys of Wizbang give us yet another example of spoiled brats who obviously needed a spanking when they were little. Hell, they need one NOW....judging from how eager they are to administer one to someone else....

And finally, A Star from Mosul celebrates her 17th birthday, and shares with us a resolution or two for her next year on earth. Stop on by and light a candle with her, won't you?

You have your orders. Stander out.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Coming Soon To a Computer Screen Near You: Celebrity Blogs

Just for giggles, I started poking around to see if famous people blog, too. (I know, it's probably old news by now, but I don't get out much.)
And, lo and behold, they do. A lot, as it turns out.

A full list of them would make this one bear of a post, so I'll limit myself to a list provided by SFGate.com:

-- Jeff Bridges: www.jeffbridges.com
-- Mariah Carey: www.mariahcarey.com
-- Adam Curry (former MTV veejay): live.curry.com
-- Melanie Griffith: www.melaniegriffith.com
-- Moby: www.moby.com
-- Author-director Michael Moore: www.michaelmoore.com
-- Al Roker: www.alroker.com/journal.cfm
-- RuPaul: www.rupaul.com
-- Director Kevin Smith: www.viewaskew.com
-- William Shatner: www.williamshatner.com
-- Gene Simmons: www.genesimmons.com
-- Gwen Stefani (and other members of No Doubt):
www.nodoubt.com/journal/
-- Wil Wheaton: www.wilwheaton.net (Yes, that Wil Wheaton. You know...."Shut up, Wesley"?)

As you may have noticed, many of those are at least somewhat politically motivated, and almost ALL of those lean rather a bit to the left. (S'okay...that way, we know who they are.)

For balance, here's one that doesn't so much....our old buddy Pat Sajak. Yep...the "Wheel of Fortune" guy. (I wonder why he wasn't in the list?)

That should give you a good starting point. Feel free to go for a swim.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Three Words for You, Jane....

ABOUT DAMN TIME.

Payback's a bitch, ain't it?

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Good People: Keni Thomas

For this, today's long-overdue return to the "Good People" section, I am gratefully indebted to Blackfive. He's one of those people who, even in today's world of used-car salesmen gaining position and power by pretending to know what's best for you, has the unerring ability to find those fine souls who practice what's best for them and theirs and, by way of example, show the rest of us what we already know to be true.

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Today's featured guest has already proved himself a hero many times over.

For one thing, he is a veteran of the Army. Specifically, he was a U.S Army Ranger. If my information is correct, his buddies called him "Cornbread".

More specifically, he was one of the Rangers whose story was told by the movie, "Black Hawk Down". One of the Rangers whose chopper went down in Mogadishu, and who survived the ensuing hell-fight to get back out.

He has since left the service at the rank of Staff Sergeant, and is beginning to establish himself pretty nicely as a country musician.
But he has not forgotten those who enabled him to survive long enough to make it this far....or their kids.

His latest album, "Flags Of Our Fathers" (made with the band that bears his Ranger nickname, and several famed guest artists like Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill and Kenny Rogers) just came out recently, and part of the proceeds are going to the Special Operations Warrior Fund, which sets up college funds for the children of SpecOps soldiers killed in action.

But don't take my word for it. Let him tell you himself.

Ladies and gentlemen.....Keni Thomas. A guy who hasn't forgotten who he was, who he is, and why he's still around.

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

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

"This Bill Is Bigger Than Both Of Us, Baby": Another Reason Why S.S. Reform Hasn't Sailed Yet

Tip o'the rock to the Godfather himself for pointing this out to us short-attention-span types (that is to say, ME) :

According to this article, Bill Clinton actually had an initiative of his own to fix Social Security while he was the Big Kahuna, and it was getting some pretty good support from both sides of the building.

If I understand it correctly, however, there is one big difference between Bill's idea and George's.
Unlike George's plan, which calls for people to be able to put 4% of their payroll tax into individual private accounts that they could manage however they see fit, Bill's plan was that the government would re-invest 5% of whatever Social Security revenue came in---as a whole---in government projects.

You know.... like what Democrats in Maryland today want to do with 8% of Walmart's revenue.

Anyway, according to the article, things were looking up for this plan, it was on the fast track to pretty probable success...
...and then the whole thing got blown to pieces. (Sorry, folks...I just couldn't stop myself.)

So why are Democrats today so jumpin'-up-and-down-like-monkeys-on-amphetamines AGAINST letting the good ship "S.S. Reform" sail out on her maiden voyage?

Simple...they won't be the ones steering it.

In closing, I will relate a poem I read once which was hanging on a wall inside a boat. I don't know how relevant it is to all of the above, but hey....I like boats, it's a neat bit of prose, and dammit, it's MY blog and I'll take it wherever I want. So here goes:

I'm not allowed to steer the boat, the horn I cannot blow.
I'm not allowed to figure out how far it's s'posed to go.
I'm not allowed to swab the deck, or even ring the bell....
But watch the damn thing spring a leak, and see who catches hell!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Note to Self: Don't Piss Off The Professor

Don't get me wrong here, folks....I really like Mike Adams. In my humble opinion, Mike is a shining example of what can happen when you take a guy who's already pretty smart and give him a college education.

I have come to a certain conclusion, however, regarding his social life:
He doesn't seem to like left-brained women.

Don't believe me? In that case, I hereby provide two of his recent columns as illustration.
Class, you may begin taking notes.

1) This one concerns Jane Christensen, who reportedly teaches political science over at North Carolina Wesleyan College. Apparently, she has a website (to which Mike has kindly provided a link for those that don't believe him) in which many fascinating theories are discussed, not the least of which is the amazing discovery of Israel's secret plans to launch targeted anti-terrorist attacks against---well, pretty much everybody---and that Iraqi households, beggaring all common wisdom to the contrary, are apparently big enough to hold about 100 people apiece....when they're not all being killed by us evil Yankee pig-dogs, that is.....

2) ....and behind Door #2, we find (gasp) a shocking revelation! Members of a Canadian feminist chat community have discovered that Mike Adams is a lying, self-loathing, gay-bashing gay guy---even more so than that stupid little yellow sponge!! The horror!! And what's even more terrifying than this? Mike himself has proclaimed that he's only gonna get worse!!! AAAIIIGGGHHH!!!!

The point of all this?

Mike's really got to find a nice, normal girl to settle down with.

Whaddaya say, gals, huh? He's a nice guy, really. Give 'im a break, whydontcha.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Bloggin' Around: Saturday, April 2

TacJammer introduces us to someone he met recently, whose name he never learned...but will most likely never forget.

Oriental Redneck shares the tale of a guy who knows how to take one for the team....and make the other team look pretty damn stupid in the process.

Ryan of Cigars in the Sand bids farewell to his brothers and sisters in the desert...and, for a while, the blogosphere...to take care of business on the home front. Give him a pat on the back, folks---he's done much to earn it.

JunkYardBlog raises an eyebrow at some interesting findings in Oklahoma, has a few things to say about whiners, and takes a gander at the mad, mad, mad, mad world according to George Felos.

And finally, Thomas Sowell fires off one of the most gloriously awful volleys of April-Foolishness since the time I flew ten thousand miles to smoke a Camel. Lock and load, people----and prepare to duck.

You have your orders. Stander out.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Two Words.....

....for Theresa Marie Schindler: Rest easy.

....for Michael Schiavo: Sweet dreams.

....for Jodi Centonze: Be afraid.

....for George Felos: Devil's advocate?

....for Judge George Greer: HAIL CAESAR!!!

....and for all the rest of us who are still wondering how the hell this could conceivably happen in America:

ASK THEM.

After all....they pulled it off, didn't they?