Christmas in Sparta

Christmas lights in Evans Bosshard Park, Sparta, Wisconsin.

Click for the full sized photo. It's over 4MB, so there's quite a bit of detail in there.

Remember what I said about President Bush?

Just a couple of days ago?

Yeah. Don't think the military doesn't know who supports them and who doesn't.

President-elect Obama stopped by the Marine Corps base in Hawaii Kaneche Bay where servicemen and -women were eating Christmas dinner in Kailua Thursday evening.

“Just wanted to say hi, hey guys,” Obama said as he walked into the Anderson dining hall which was decked out in Christmas decorations.

The diners represented seven military units -- Marine and Navy -- some of whom were joined by their families for Christmas dinner.

As Obama entered the room, it was absent of the regular fanfare of cheering and clapping. The diners were polite, staying seated at their respective tables and waited for the president-elect to come to them to stand up.

There's a little phrase in the Army, that probably exists in the other services as well: If you have to, respect the rank. Meaning, you can find someone in your leadership chain completely repugnant, but you still have to show that person the respect due their rank.

Which is what these troops did.

We're not stupid, despite what the deranged Leftists think. We cannot and do not respect someone who has been calling our victory a failure. We cannot and do not respect someone who has slandered the troops to gain the votes of the Far Left. We cannot and do not respect someone who only cares about us when he needs a photo op.

It's going to be a long four years for us in uniform.

Bambi will be my BITCH!

Oh yeah! Uh huh! Got a muzzle loader! It's my birthday!

OK, well, maybe it's not my birthday. But still!

It's too late to go out hunting again; the season was over on the 10th of December. But that gives me time to practice, sight it in and get familiar with it. It came with the scope brand new in the box, never been fired. Unfortunately, using a scope is illegal during muzzle-loader season. But the factory put the iron sights in the case with it, so all I have to do is take the scope off, put the rear sight on, and I'm good to go.

It's a Wolf break-action in .50 caliber. It uses the 209 primers. I've got some miniballs to practice at the range with, but I'll be getting the primo bullets for actual hunting.

Yet another gun for the cabinet. And another season in which to kill Bambi.

As an aside, I had dinner tonight with the gentleman who loaned me that other, non-working muzzle loader. He actually feels quite bad about the whole situation. But the one thing that I took away from it, other than to never use that particular gun again, is that it wasn't me. That is, I was not the reason I didn't get a deer. I had been feeling pretty crappy by that last day. I mean, I hadn't seen a frikkin' thing other than a squirrel or two. Was I doing something wrong? Did I smell wrong? Was I hunting in the wrong places? Hunters, you know how it is - you don't see anything, you get to wondering just what the hell is going on.

Well, it wasn't anything I was doing. Harvest numbers all over the state were down. Lots of reasons for it - weather, date of the hunting seasons, an overly-high estimate of the deer population. But I had a deer so close I could have thrown the gun at it and hit it. So I can hunt. And now I have a gun I can hunt with for another two weeks after the regular season. Oh hell yeah. I'm taking an entire week off for hunting season next year. I'm getting that white-tailed varmint. I WILL HAVE MY VENISON!

THIS! IS! WISCONSIN!

If this rumour is true....

Would anyone really be shocked? Show of hands? Anyone? Anyone?

Didn't think so.

Goin' Shopping

Some of you might remember that little problem I had during hunting season because of a borrowed muzzle-loader. I plan on solving THAT little problem today. There's a Cabela's about two hour's drive from here. I'll make it an all day event. Drive down, take pictures (the route follows the Wisconsin border, which is the Mississippi River), stop and have lunch with the Ragin' Mrs. at some little restaurant, and get my muzzle loader.

It might just be one hell of a day.

How was your Christmas?

Christmas Eve

There's a whole lot of political bullshit out there that I could get upset about if I wanted to.

There's a whole lot I can bitch and moan about if I wanted to.

But the bottom line is this - no matter what's going on, I've got a damned good life. I've got a great woman who married me. I'm still happy to wake up and put my uniform on every day.

It's Christmas.

You folks take care. I'll see you whenever you get back online.

Merry Christmas

Not Happy Holidays, Merry X-mas or anti-Christmas Kwanzaa...

"And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them! And they were sore afraid ... And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings o great joy, which shall be to all my people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord."

"And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward men."

"That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

I hope you all find a fraction of the joy I am blessed with this day. For if you do then you will truly know happiness.

Adding to the post below

When I was transitioning to my new position, I was working with a Sergeant from Ohio. He had been on his way to Iraq with his unit a couple years ago, when his plane stopped for a scheduled re-fueling in Maine. The plane was going to be on the tarmac for about two hours while it picked up fuel and changed crew.

Turns out President Bush was in Maine at the same time, and when he found out that a plane-load of troops was going to be sitting around for a couple of hours, he decided to stop in and talk to 'em. So he did. Just walked on the plane and started talking to a bunch of Soldiers about their mission, their lives back home, what they thought about going over, what their fears and hopes were.

There was no press. There was no media coverage. There was just a man going to talk to men and women who were serving their country. And if the Sergeant I was working with had not have told me about it, I would have never known it happened.

Obama can't even visit wounded troops in Germany unless he turns it into a media circus.

To Obama, and with all Democrat American Communist Party members, the troops are there to be used for political gain, and nothing more. Judging from remarks made by John F'n Kerry, Charlie "Taxes? What taxes?" Rangel, and a host of other parasites in donkey suits, the Left doesn't even think that the military qualifies as human. Unless they can use us for their own personal gain, they don't want to deal with us at all.

Obama would not visit wounded troops in Germany unless he got a good media story out of it.

President Bush walked on to a plane of Soldiers and talked with them for two hours, and nobody outside of that plane knew about it unless the Soldiers told them. No press, no national media.

I think that speaks all that needs to be said on that score.

The untold story

Seen in quite a few places, about President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching - balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin - that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.

"I lean on the Almighty and Laura," Mr. Bush said in the interview. "She has been very reassuring, very calming."

(.....)

Mr. Cheney similarly has hosted numerous events, even sneaked away from the White House or his Naval Observatory home to meet troops at hospitals or elsewhere without a hint to the news media.

For instance, Mr. Cheney flew to North Carolina late last month and met with 500 special-operations soldiers for three hours on a Saturday night at a golf resort. The event was so secretive that the local newspaper didn't even learn about it until three days after it happened.

Mr. Cheney and his wife, Lynne, also have hosted more than a half-dozen barbecues at their Naval Observatory home for wounded troops recovering at Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed and their spouses and children.

There's four pages to that story. Read each and every one of them. I hate Bush's domestic policy. I think that on the domestic front, President Bush is no different than any Democrat American Communist Party member chosen at random from Congress.

But when it comes to the military..........

There's President Bush, who obviously cares about the troops, who shares their pain, who understands exactly who and what is at stake, and then there's the Democrats, the troop-hating, military despising, Soldier insulting, Marine-spitting-on, Airman dismissing, Sailor-cussing Leftoids who haven't done or said a DAMN thing positive to the troops in decades. The worthless, drug-addled ex-hippies who never grew up, who remember spitting on the troops after Viet Nam, and who want to do it again.

Go read. While I wasn't a big McCain supporter, read that story and ask yourself if you could ever in your wildest dreams see that corrupt fucking commie piece of shit Obama doing what President Bush has done.

Snort

"Stop linking Islam to Terrorism!"

As Mike says, You First, assholes! Maybe when muslims stop blowing shit up all over the world, hmmmmm?

Quiz Time

Just for Gits and Shiggles.

My Conservative Identity:

You are an Anti-government Gunslinger, also known as a libertarian conservative. You believe in smaller government, states’ rights, gun rights, and that, as Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Take the quiz at www.FightLiberals.com

Yep. Sounds about right.

From Frankie C

Reader Frankie C sent me this link in an email in an attempt to get my blood pressure up.

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

Now, before I start ranting and raving, I have a serious question to ask - how much of the bank failure was caused by the Government?

Think about the mortgage crash-n-burn. We can all blame the banks, or the mortgage companies, but the fact is that it was CONGRESS who forced companies to make loans to people who should have never gotten a loan in a million years. All in the name of Diversity (ALL HAIL DIVERSITY!). That was the trigger for the problems that we're having right now. As usual, when the government gets involved, things get worse. As the mortgage crisis flamed out of control, banks were left holding mortgages that were essentially worthless.

When you go from having assets, to having no assets, that's gotta hit a bank pretty darn hard.

Now, was there some stupid financial shenannigans going on? Most certainly. But by who? Who exactly needs to be keelhauled, and who should be congratulated for their damage control?

The AP article doesn't say.

I don't trust the AP in the best of times, and these ain't the best of times. They have their agenda, and they push it at every opportunity. Remember folks, the Media is not your friend. They are the enemy. So the fact that the AP is hyperventilating over the bank CEO's salaries means nothing to me.

And I must point out again that the very same Congress who caused the Mortgage burnout, the very same Congress who has driven our economy into the dirt, the very same Congress who has killed thousands of jobs in this country.... just gave themselves a pay raise.

Which the AP is fine and dandy with. So that ought to tell you exactly what they're thinking. So while I'm upset at some greedy bastards, I can't really get angry until I know WHO screwed up, and who did their level best to save their companies.