Okay, I'll try to make this as short as possible. Not to slight my Loyal Readers™, it's just that I have a plane to catch. I tried to go home last week, but the plane never showed up. So I ended up taking a few days of leave and then coming back to work. Today the plane's supposed to be here shortly, and in a couple hours I can get on that joker and get the heck out of here. So. Once again, blogging will be limited to, uh, probably nothing. As far as why I spent most of the last week not working... but still couldn't manage to do any decent blogging... I was... uh... catching up on sleep. Yeah, that's it. See y'all in a week.
*- quote referring to the Praetorian Guard- a group of elite soldiers who were paid to protect the Emperor from assassination but were responsible for most of the assassinations. Meaning if one group has all the power, who's keeping them in check?
So I haven't bothered to blahg about Easongate. It's all been said by bloggers who are a lot better at this than me. My take on it can pretty much be summed up like so:
"I'm Eason Jordan. I made a ridiculous claim about America's military. It was a bold-faced lie, and everybody with a brain knows it, but I'm the MSM, and I'm above reproach. That is, until some nefarious bloggers said some mean things about me and actually got people thinking. Man. Sure wish I'd'a learned my lesson from Dan Rather."
Well, I'd like to weigh in on something I saw this morning. On CNN, no less. Some guy named Bill Press (who happens to be the author of a book called "Bush Must Go". No, this guy isn't partisan at all.) said Eason Jordan was targeted by bloggers because he works for CNN.
That's his reason. That's why he thinks bloggers are going after Jordan. Because he works for CNN, and we want to take CNN down. Now, lemme address one point first: Why is it that nobody on the left has any grip on reality and why we righties think the way we do? I took note of this trend a few days ago (here, under Number Two). They always want to blame things on the most ridiculously far-fetched crap. "Why are there insurgents in Iraq? Why, because of Abu Ghraib, of course!" Get a clue.
We (speaking generally for the right side of the 'sphere) aren't interested in taking CNN down. We know the way they're going we don't have to do anything- they'll destroy themselves just fine. Mr. Press, is it absolutely inconceivable to you that bloggers went after Jordan because he told a Filthy Lie that would've been worthy of Glenn Reynolds? And had no intention of retracting it until the blogosphere made him look like a complete moron? Please.
Then he made an interesting assumption. He said if LTG Mattis had said the same thing (about targeting reporters) that the right-wing bloggers would've praised his comments. Well, first of all, he didn't. But if he would've uttered the same insanity we got from Eason Jordan, there wouldn't be anybody on his side. Do you really think that just because somebody is "on our side" that we won't keep them in check? People on the left are calling for the general's head because of a legitimate comment he made. News flash, morons, we're at war. If he said that his Marines deliberately target American reporters- shoot. Him, his staff, and all the Marines in question would be tried swiftly in a court-martial. Why? Because the U.S. military has accountability- something the MSM lacks.
Well, sorry for ya, MSM. The years of your little oligarchy over what the American people hear, see, and think are over, buddy. Who will guardkeep in check these selfsame guardsmenthe MSM? Why, we will. We are now targeting reporters. But if you pay attention, you'll realize that the only "targeting of reporters" going on is when they lie to our faces and won't 'fess up. Why is this so difficult to understand?
Hmm. I guess I could've named this piece "Open letter to Bill Press and the rest of the MSM". S'all for now.
UPDATE: Hooray for blantant spelling errors in super-size, ultrabold font at the header of the post. And I only had to look at it like thirty times before I noticed it. Weird.
Hey, y'all, here's a couple thoughts I had while (accidentally) watching the Posterior-Smooching ofTribute to Terry McAuliffe on C-Span. I wasn't really paying attention, but it just seemed like there was quite a lot of unnecessary love being sent his way. So... I would like to join my, uh, fellow politically-charged people (read: all those flaming liberals that threw in their 2¢) in thanking the ex-DNC chairman, Mr. Terry McAuliffe.
Mr. McAuliffe, thank you, sir. Your tireless devotion to the American political landscape has done great wonders for the American people. Thanks to you, sir, the Democratic Party has become so insanely liberal that normal moderates (the swing voters) are so repulsed that they will never again consider voting Democrat. Thanks to you, for the last six Congressional elections the Democrats have lost ground in the House of Representatives and the Senate. I believe you worked with President Clinton on that one. And... most importantly... thanks to you, and the Presidential candidates your party has brought forward, the American people have TWICE elected George W. Bush. Well, I'm sure the main reason he's President is because he's the man, but you certainly helped!
So. Goodbye, Terry McAuliffe, and on behalf of grateful conservatives across America, thank you. To the new chairman, Mr. Dean: I have no doubt you will continue and even improve upon the legacy of Mr. McAuliffe. Who knows, with your leadership potential, the Democrats may even be able to attain the goal of reasonable people everywhere: that their party will land on the ash heap of history. YAAAAAAAAaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!
Thank you, and good night.
Hey, loyal Readers™!
Tomorrow, the U.S. Army has generously offered me a week off, and the U.S. Air Force has generously offered me a free ride back to the States.
I'm out, yo. Goin' to see the wife and babies.
What This Means To You: Eons ago, CD started buggin' me to start a blog. The reason I gave at the time (and it still stands up, believe me) is that with the wife, and kids, and dog (now dogs), and house to keep up with, and working like a bajillion hours a week, I never would've had time to post. Here, it's a different story altogether- The wife, kids, dogs, and house are all in Alabama, whereas I am in Honduras. Still have the whole "job" thing to take care of, but it's not as involved here, so I have a bit of spare time. So I started SITYSK™.
However, since I'm going home, blogging will slow immensely, or more likely, screech to a halt. I just don't plan on having time to post, sorry. I might write something occasionally, I don't know- but don't expect it.
Anywho. Don't want y'all to think I quit on ya. I should be back on the 15th, so blogging will resume then or maybe the next day. 'Til then, feel free to peruse the archives or the blogroll.
Oh, and I know I just wrote a big ol' post asking for input. If I get any feedback from it, I'll expand on said post when I get back. buh-BYE.
I've been thinking about something lately.
There's all this anger coming from moonbats concerning the war in Iraq. It's the same old crap since late 2002(ish), and I had actually gotten a taste of it back in '90-'91, I was just too young to know it then. It seems to me that most Americans, while they may not be head-over-heels in love with the war in Iraq, agree that Saddam was evil, and that he probably would've hurt us really bad one day. Some of us (like yours truly) are ecstatic that that murderous tyrant is in a cell where he belongs, and millions of people who have known only despair are now free. But, of course, there's the moonbats. Moonbats that think we went in just to take their oil. Moonbats that think that OIF was completely meaningless because we didn't find a lot of WMDs.* Moonbats that think we're an "imperialist occupation force". I would venture to guess that these anti-war types are a very small percentage of the American people, and that the MSM just gives them a lot of attention because they screech the loudest.
But I'm curious. The two lengthiest conflicts America got involved in this century have gotten completely opposite reviews. World War II is remembered as being a glorious example of American greatness where all the valorous soldiers returned home as heroes. Vietnam, on the other hand, is remembered as being a dark example of American depravity where the soldiers were pot-smokers who returned home and got spit on.
History has judged these two wars very differently. They were obviously not the same war, but are the differences between the wars themselves what has caused the different perceptions? Some of the basic differences, off the top of my head:
World War II was a fight to the death against a heinous evil, that if left unchecked, could have one day conquered America itself.
Vietnam was a "police action" to contain world Communism.
But is it that simple? I consider myself a decent enough WWII buff, but my history about Vietnam is weak, at best. So here's my first need-feedback type question. What were the implications involved in Vietnam? I know we didn't want the South to fall to Communism, which was the biggest threat in the world at that time... possibly ever. But just how important was South Vietnam? Were we convinced that Communism would continue to spread, maybe to India or Japan or Australia next? Or were we just sticking our noses in where they don't belong, as some would have us believe?
World War II was very obviously a just war. We were fighting for survival. What about Vietnam? I know history portrays Vietnam as a colossal mistake, and that it's common to find that as a reason for the anti-war protests. However... having seen what I've seen on TV about Iraq the last two years, I am now inclined to question all that history. Now let me get to the point.
A supposition: World War II is remembered by historians as a good thing, and rightly so. Vietnam is remembered by historians as one big oopso from beginning to end. I'm starting to believe that what the historians say about Vietnam is not entirely accurate. Having seen today's moonbats shriek the most unbelievable things about a just war in Iraq, I wonder if historians are remembering only what is convenient about Vietnam. But... alas... I wasn't there.
So. I would like to know if any SITYSK™ readers who were actually there for these chunks of history saw that either:
a) during the '60s and '70s, most Americans really didn't mind Vietnam but were outscreamed by hippies, or
b) during the '40s, were there morons equivalent to today's moonbats who were still opposed to the war despite the truths about it that were right in front of their faces.
The reason for this is that it wouldn't surprise me, two or three decades from now, to have a whole crop of kids grow up thinking that at the turn of the millenium America had a bloodthirsty president who went around on a religious crusade invading Middle Eastern countries for oil. People today actually believe that, but they're idiots; I'm hoping time will silence them.
That next generation will need to know the truth- that we were in a fight for our lives against a particularly unscrupulous enemy. See, my theory is that not everybody, not even the majority, of Americans were so dead set against our troops being in Vietnam. But all I have to go on is history that's possibly tainted.
So. A call for help: if you were there, let me know what the mood in the country was really like. Especially if you were a veteran of those wars or times. Lord knows if some punk kid comes up to me when I'm seventy and starts talking about the warforoil and how he'd have spit on soldiers' uniforms or some nonsense, I'll smack him upside the head with my cane and force him to listen to every story about the sandbox that I can remember.
*- we didn't find a lot of WMDs. We did find some. A little bit. And just 'cuz we didn't find them all doesn't mean they weren't there. Wanted to clarify that.
Hey, if this entertained or enlightened you in the slightest, kindly visit the new site.
It has gradually dawned on me that in order to be a cool blogger one must know a Filthy Lieneat story about Glenn Reynolds. And one must have a quote by the same. Well, Glenn emailed me, and I transcribed what he had to say. He's such a nice guy, that Evil Glenn.
It's really a shame about my puppy, though. ::sniff::
UPDATE: Pardon the author's ignorance. The author has applied for full standing with the Alliance. Today Instapundit, tomorrow the world! Oh, and thanks, CD.
UPDATE THE SECOND: And I know that my Filthy Lieneat story needs some work. They'll get better.
Hey, y'all... some random stuff...
Number One. I heart Prime Minister's Questions. I don't know much of anything about British politics- I don't know Liberal Democrat from Conservative from Labor, they might mean something completely different on the other side of the pond. I have no idea what the heck a Tory is. The only thing I know about Tony Blair is he's the man 'cuz he stood with President Bush on Iraq.
But British politics rules. They aren't afraid to call each other morons on international TV. I hate politics when it involves politicking. If Congress would just tell it like it is, the U.S. government would be much more efficient. Bipartisan, crapioca. If you're an idiot, I'm gonna call you out. PM's Questions rules.
Number Two. So I was watching Fox & Friends this morning and some reporter guy had asked John Kerry why he thought he lost in November. Ya ready? Wait for it...
Because of 9/11. And Osama's tape right before the election.
Yeah. That was it, Senator. Yeah. Senator. Not President. Senator. Oh, sorry. Anyway, yeah. It was 9/11. You never had a chance. It had nothing to do with your screaming liberalism or your inability to take a stance on anything, other than "Bush sucks".
Oh, yeah, and apparently he thinks he's a mainstream Democrat. That means either he's insane, or the whole friggin' Democratic Party is insane.
Moving on...
Number Three. It really irritates me when people cough *Michelle Millhouse* cough consistently misspell words. Especially "Your a such-and-such." It's YOU'RE. You. Are. Contraction.
So. There's a plug for O'Reilly on something about parents listening in on their kids' phone conversations. "Blah blah blah do you think it's not against the law? Your Wrong."
Argh. It's not like you guys are live. This was something somebody typed up and it probably had to go through half a dozen editors.
Argh.
Okay. Happy Monday, everybody.
UPDATE: The link to C-Span may be broke. It's being looked into.
UDDATE THE SECOND: Nope, the link is fine. My computer was just being wonky.
Wonky. That's two SarahK Patented Words™ in one post. One more and I get a hat trick. Um, pinkytoe. Tony Blair kicks pinkytoe. There. The End.
yay. go pats. tom brady is keen. yup.
Arrgghhh!!! If the stupid NHL was playing this year, the playoff race would just be getting good! I sure wish I could take a year off work to whine about my paycheck! Arrgghhh!!!
Can y'all tell I'm a one-sport kinda guy?
Well, it's Super Bowl halftime. I must say, this has been among the more boring football games I've seen. Blah.
Maybe it's 'cuz I think football ends when players graduate from college. That's the only reason I care about the Pats, 'cuz Tom Brady kicked butt at the University of Michigan.
Anywho.
The blogosphere's mighty boring today too, (not like I've done much to help), but I finally have a chance to keep caught up on all my reading and nobody's writing. Oh well. Makes it easy to stay caught up.
More blah later. Maybe tomorrow. Blah.
UPDATE: People are posting, I'm just friggin' blind. Off to go finish reading...
"Insignificant Microbe". That's pretty sad. We'll see if it bumps up a bit after TTLB scans me.
In other news, if you saw the quintuple post, it's because Blogger was smoking crack. Order has been restored.
UPDATE, the next day: Keen. Once they registered my eight links I jumped from Insignificant Microbe to Flippery Fish. Perch, please. Two more links and I'll be a Crawly Amphibian. Now I see why people blog about the Ecosystem. S'kinda fun.
Man... <---exasperation
I just got in the swing of reading The Diplomad... and he's calling it a career. (For his blog anyway.)
Poop.
Well, bro... we'll miss you.
Well, it's Saturday, and I had a real chance to do some serious blogging. But I couldn't. I was busy reading basil's archives. That guy's friggin' funny.
Be advised that the following post in no way describes current U.S. Army policy. You heard our next Presidentthe Secretary of State. We have no plans to invade Iran... at this time.
Hey, Ted Rall said something smart!
I knew there was hope for the man. He must've come to SITYSK™ yesterday, after he posted this, and realized the error of his ways. Glad I could help. So, him and me agree that the world would be much better off if America would just take over every other country. You know, in all the history of all the world, there's never been any one country that had the capacity to actually conquer the world. Not Alexander's Greeks, or Caesar's Romans, or Genghis Khan's Mongols. Not the British Empire, or Napoleon, or Hitler ever had much of a shot. But America, today- now we can do it! Our war technology is decades ahead of everybody else. And if you've ever played any of the games in this series, you know that if your technology is better, you don't need as many soldiers. Shoot, we'd only need to draft a few million new troops. Charles Rangel, where ya at? We need your help.
So anyway. Ted Rall knows what's best for us all. America must dominate the rest of the world and spread democracyour way or the highway everywhere. Good job, Ted- what's that?
Speak a little louder, please.
Oh. His cartoon was a joke? He's saying that we're imperialistic and warmongering for freeing two dictatorships?
Well, I still don't know what's wrong with being imperialistic or warmongering, but- crap. Man, Ted, I thought you were on to something. I guess you're still an idiot. Oh well.
No, not you. You're reading SITYSK™, you are obviously enlightened and wise. But check out this headline:
Gonzales confirmed: war criminal to head US Justice Department
I didn't actually read the crap that went with it, my Moonbat Meter overloaded and my brain shut down. It's a self-defense mechanism, I can't become contaminated. But I'm just curious if the headline would've said "Self-Proclaimed War Criminal Inaugurated to U.S. Presidency" if Kerry would've won.
I doubt it.
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin
Hey, I hope this link works. It's from a list that goes to my Hotmail account, so, well, we'll see. It's friggin' funny.
Hmm.
Nixon. Nixon/Ford. Carter. Reagan. Reagan. Bush. Clinton. Clinton. Bush. Bush.
Seven of the last ten Presidential terms have been served by Republicans. That's not exactly news but I was thinking about it last night.
It gave me a warm fuzzy.
This has been your completely random thought for Friday.
Scrappleface sums it up:
Yup, this is the kind of "soldier" you have to be for Democrats to appreciate you.
Mwheh.
Hey, y'all, got a couple new faces on the blogroll. One of them is Twenty First Century Republican, written by Nick D., who just graduated from Marine Corps boot camp. Hooah... er, I mean, ooh-rah, or whatever you jarheads say.
Hat tip: West Coast Chaos
The other one is basil, whose blog is keen, and who blogrolled me weeks ago, and I am only just now returning the favor. Silly me.
Go. Read now.
Rambling, exaperated-sigh-of-irritation type post follows.
Last spring, when Pat Tillman was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan, The King of Evil Moonbats had this to say. (hat tip: CD) At the time, I was very new to the blogosphere, and this cartoon was my "welcome-to-the-world-of-hateful-liberals" initiation.
Well, nothing this guy does any more surprises me, but every once in a while he makes me just mad enough to note his foulness.
So today his pathetic excuse for a badly drawn cartoon is this. Mind you, I can't draw for crap. Which is why I don't attempt to make my living drawing stuff. But enough about his nonexistent artistic abilities, let's move on to the message.
Apparently, Mr. Rall is fresh out of ideas. Three months ago, his party lost disastrously, failing to win the Presidency, as well as losing seats in the House and Senate. Since then, the war in Iraq has continued to go well, President Bush gave his Inaugural address and his State of the Union speech, and Iraqis voted. The front-runner for the DNC chair is a guy that most Democrats don't even respect. What on earth is Mr. Rall to do? There's no one left to write aboutspew vitriol at!
So. He knows he created a righteous firestorm from decent people when he made that horrible parody of a good soldier's death. I guess times are getting hard for Mr. Rall, so he's re-stirring a pot that he knows is volatile.
Well, Mr. Rall, it worked. For me, anyway. You have succeeded in making me notice you. I guess it's just his trap- he has no talent as an artist or as a writer, so he does shock-jock. Maybe I'm helping his career, because without pissing off people like me he would be out of a job. Maybe I should just GAZE.
Whatever. Mr. Rall, you are despicable. Should I pray for you, sir? I could pray that God would turn you around and make you into something that resembles a human being, (which at present you are definetely not), or I could pray that He judges you for being so hateful.
You don't want that.
So- you're welcome, Mr. Rall. You're welcome that SPC Tillman's fellow Rangers have not executed you in righteous indignation. You're welcome that his widow has not sued you (if she did, I didn't hear about it). You're welcome that soldiers like Pat Tillman provide you, day in and day out, with the freedoms that you spit on by cursing them when they die for you, and long afterward.
You're supposed to say "thank you".
crickets chirping
Well, I was gonna liveblog the State of the Union address, but circumstances conspired against me. I was on the phone with my wife for large chunks of the speech, so those chunks will receive little or no attention here. Other times I was able to pay more attention, so if seems like I'm really harping on certain areas and ignoring others, that's part of the reason. I wasn't even at the computer during the speech, but I was able to scribble some notes down. And since the posting on this blog has been sporadic or nonexistent the last couple weeks, I won't pass up the opportunity to post what I got. Here goes.
Social Security- he's gonna try to make it so some of my money that would normally go to SS will go to a personal account. That's a start, been hearing a lot about that lately. How 'bout y'all just let me keep ALL the money I make, and if in 40 years I can't retire, it sucks to be me?
Constitutional amendment to protect marriage. Go for it. Do whatever's necessary.
Judges should interpret the law, not legislate from the bench. You know, it just shows how apathetic and ignorant America has become that the President even has to spell this out for us. It's right in the friggin' Constitution!!! That's what judges are supposed to do!!! Geez. Hello? Three branches of government? Executive? Legislative? and JUDICIAL?
Oh, I mean, yeah, Mr. President. Set these morons straight.
Oh, man. He said "nucular". CD must be getting seriously pissed right about now.
Um, a democratic Palestinian state is a dream, Mr. President. I don't see it ever happening. But- two years ago a free Iraq was a dream. Anything's possible.
But I still don't see it happening. Palestinians are too set in their ways, they seem to prefer killing themselves to take some Jooooos with them.
Way to bust out Syria and Iran! You jerkies better straighten up!!!
Blue fingers. Good stuff.
"35 years under Saddam Hussein. That was the real occupation." And a heartfelt thank-you from an Iraqi girl. On behalf of my friends over there, you're welcome.
"We will not abandon Iraq"... man, even Kerry stood up for that one. Hillary didn't, though. Hmm.
Americans in uniform are serving at posts around the world.
Looks around at Honduran landscape
Yup, looks like.
"Volunteers" in our military. For a second there I thought he was gonna bust out Charles Rangel.
And, although I didn't know it at the time, this is the last part of the speech:
Janet and Bill Norwood. Parents of a fallen Marine, I salute you. <---my words, not the President's. Semper fi!
Okay, I could probably do better than that, but it's time for bed. Work happens real early tomorrow. See ya.
The first Medal of Honor in the War on Terror has been awarded. (To my knowledge, none have been awarded for OEF, the Afghanistan campaign.) The last Medals of Honor were given to a couple of ballsy Delta Force snipers in Mogadishu, eleven years ago. I believe the ones before that were from Vietnam.
To earn a MoH, one must basically do something so heroic that nobody in their right mind would do it. It has to be so risky that you could never be ordered to do it. It has to be so dangerous that you place your own life in unnecessary peril. (Two-thirds of past MoH winners died getting the medal.) It has to be witnessed by at least two other people, and it has to save the lives of those around you.
In short, such bravery is rare.
And from an engineer, too. I am not slighting the Corps of Engineers, but one would normally expect MoHs to come out of the infantry and other gung-ho type grunts. This NCO trained his soldiers incessantly (yeah, I'd'a been pissed at him too) because he knew what they might be getting into one day. He was right. His sacrifice saved their lives, but so did the training he gave them. General Schoomaker, the Army Chief of Staff (ultra-top-boss-man) has a vision for the Army that fits the WoT: Every soldier a rifleman first. In a conventional war, my little radar-fixin' self does not need to worry much about combat. That's what grunts are for. But front lines have been done away with. The grunts are still a lot more likely to get shot at than me (that is their job). But with our new style of war, forced on us by terrorists, anybody can get involved in a firefight. Go ask Jessica Lynch.
So. Summing up: Highspeed NCO trained the crap out of his soldiers because he understood that one day they just might need it. Combine that with his bravery, gallantry, and valor, and he brought his platoon home, just like he said he would.
Godspeed, SFC Smith. You are an American hero.
bugle plays taps
long salute
Hat tip: El Capitan, via Michelle Malkin.