So I'm reading around...

DANEgerus.

Hot Air.

Baby Troll Blog.

RNS.

And you know what I think? Assault. Full, outright, frontal assault, by the Left, against America and her supporters. Take this post by Hot Air, for example: Reporter's Errors. It details how the Associated (with terrorists) Press gave a wrong story about military involvement regarding militias in Iraq. I'm not going to quote it, you can go read it if you want to. But it's just one more example of how the Left is pushing to get America smeared and defamed. It's one facet of the assault by the Left.

They're pushing hard for their side. Who's pushing for America? And yes, at this point I am making the distinction between the Left and America.

Don't know if I've posted this before.

But if I have, oh well. Here's something for everyone to try - a third-grade geography test.

Enjoy. And yes, I completed it in the time allowed.

Art

Mrs. du Toit has a post up about art. Specifically - movies.

For a film to be great and “art,” a few hundred things have to come together all at the same time. The subject matter has to be interesting, the characters deep and rich, the cinematography truthful, and the editing has to flow. The actors have to be playing parts that are their essence and able to wear their characters as they do their skin. The music and sound has to blend, never getting in the way of the images, but not being too timid either. In a word, everything has to “gel” and become not a series of various arts and skills and craftsmen, but something that when put together and done properly, becomes one thing.

Now, I don't know much about movies, but I've been involved with music in one form or another for years. And that paragraph above, I can understand.

I don't know any way to describe what it's like when you're performing with a group of people, and it just..... clicks. There's no other way to describe it. And sometimes, you can't control it. You want to control it, because then you could bring it out when you need it most, but it doesn't work like that. Sometimes, things just gel so well that it blows you away. I've been at a live performance where the musician was playing his heart out, and while the music was good, it just had something missing. And I've been at a second performance, same musician, same song, and it clicked. The previous performance was good, but this time, it grabbed you and didn't let you go until the song was over. It was like the music just took you over and MADE YOU LISTEN, and you didn't have any choice. It was that damn good. Things gelled. The musicians got into a groove, and it just.... clicked.

There are not many things in the “art” realm that are cooperative efforts. Yes, certainly, the painter relies on his canvas maker and the manufacture of his paints, but they aren’t all working in concert, at the same time, the way a film is made. On a film set there are dozens of artists and craftsmen working in concert, performing something akin to dance. And, like dance, there can be moments, rare moments, when everyone gets it just right… when everything is perfect and you realize you are witnessing something almost other worldly.

Many moons ago, back during the high school daze, I was in jazz choir. The choir director had pulled out an old standard for a small group to peform. Eight people - two soprano, two alto, two tenors, and two bass. "When I Fall In Love". Cheesy. It's been done waaaaay too much, but what the hell, we were going to do it again. Only we were going to do it better. About one week from the performance, we were rehersing in the auditorium before school started, and decided to give it one last run through before we all went to class.

And the moment,
I can feel that
You feel that way too.....
Is when I fall in love with you

And it clicked. People stopped what they were doing to listen to us. People who heard us from outside came in to listen to us. People who didn't give one damn about jazz, singing, or music in general stopped in their tracks while we sang. And nobody moved or said a word until we were done. Afterwards, we just stood around and stared at each other for a while, like "Damn, what just happened? Did we really do that?"

I'd like to say we did that at the performance, but we didn't. Oh, we were good, but we didn't click like we had a week previous.

There are few moments in life when art presents itself like that… when you know you have been in the presence of greatness… those oh-so-rare occasions when time stops and you become part of something…something better than ourselves.

I know how hard it is to reach that peak in music. To be able to reach it and capture it on film? I have no idea. I remember the first time I heard "Sing Sing Sing", recorded at Carnagie Hall, where the groove clicked, and Gene Krupa just could not stop playing. You can feel in even in that scratchy old recording. Krupa was in it. The orchestra had it. And the music didn't stop for over fourteen minutes, and everyone just clicked until they were wrung out. The audience went nuts. They knew that they had just witnessed greatness, however fleeting, and that they may not ever have a chance to see anything like that again.

You can go years and years and never see or experience great art. I’m sure that most people go their whole lives and never see it once. Some might have been in its presence but didn’t know it—weren’t capable of knowing it, or just missed it by some strange set of unfortunate events. Some people might have been in the presence of a great artist and sensed there was something unusual, but couldn’t describe it.

I'm not a big fan of movies; I firmly believe that 90% of the movies churned out by Hollywood should have never been made. But every now and then, you find that gem that makes you remember why you watch movies in the first place. I don't think I've ever experienced movies the way Mrs. du Toit has, nor will I ever. So be it.

But then, I'm not an actor, I'm a musician.

Don't quite know why I wrote this. Still, at least I've done one post today.

I know I haven't written much lately

I'm learning a new job, pretty much. The Army made me a quartermaster, and put me in a quartermaster slot. But my unit needs a personnel NCO.

So I'm learning on the fly. It's a cast-iron bitch. In any case, it's taking up a big part of my time. Hopefully I'll actually have something to write about during the weekend.

Just a reminder

Since gas prices are going up this summer.

So, when some idiot tries to persuade you that the evil greedy oil companies are the real reason you're being soaked for gasoline, kick him in the balls. And, when you've got his attention, ask him to explain the last time a state or federal government drilled one exploratory well, pumped one gallon of crude, gas, or diesel, wiped one windshield, changed one citizen's oil. And yet, the government takes $1 out of a notional $2.38 for a gallon of gas. That's 42 cents of every dollar. What obscene profit? Better: just whose profits are obscene, here?

Yep

The safari story of Cuddles

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company. One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he's lost.. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch. The old poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?" Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!", says the leopard, "That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!" Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard. The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine! Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?", but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says. "Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard! Moral of this story.... Don't mess with old farts... age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.

Hey Dave!

(and you have to imagine this being said in the worst Leftist voice) "How's that recruiting going, you chickenhawk-bushco-killbot-rethuglican?"

Answer: Pretty damn well!

The Army National Guard reached its congressionally authorized end strength of 350,000 Citizen-Soldiers on March 30, six months earlier than originally projected, Army Guard officials have reported.

"The strength of the Guard has been the amazing levels of retention among members of deployed units, surpassing all expectations," said Lt. Col. Diana Craun, the Army Guard’s deputy chief for strength maintenance.

"Retention is highest among units that have returned from deployments, and retention is an essential element in end strength," she added.

It is the first time that the Army Guard has been at full strength since 1999, Craun said. Officials had projected that the Army Guard would reach 350,000 troops by Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year.

(emphasis mine)

If the troops didn't believe in what they were doing, they would not be re-enlisting. If the troops felt that they were losing the war in Iraq, they would not be re-enlisting. If the troops felt the way the Democrat American Communist Party claimed they did, they would not be re-enlisting.

Keep that in mind the next time some brain-dead halfwit Leftist (redundancy alert!) starts babbling about how they "support the troops" but want to pull out of Iraq right now.

I'm sorry, what?

I know I've been out of the loop for a while, but what? What the hell is this?

[...]citing the media embargo of a Rasmussen poll “finding that 61% of self-identifying Democrats either believe George Bush knew of the 9/11 attacks in advance or are not sure if he did or not”

Just what the hell is going on here? I know that the Left and the Democrat American Communist Party is the home to complete foaming at the mouth moonbats, but I never thought that they would prove my claim right so easily!

I want you all to think about this: Over two thirds of self-identifying Dimocrats either know or aren't sure that George W. Bush, the President of the United States, either knew about September 11th before it happened or actually had a hand in it.

What. The. FUCK?

This is sheer insanity, folks. This is the equivalent of someone attempting to claim that aliens are taking over all the large breasted redheads in an attempt to control men the world over. Not that I would blame the aliens, mind you, large-breasted redheads being what they are. But it's still nuts. Lunacy. Insanity. Sheer, total and complete mental breakdown. The absence of any kind of logical thought.

And these people vote.

God help the country.

UPDATE: Via RWN, here's the link to the Rasmussen Poll that has the numbers.

Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure.

Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view.

Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance.

Folks, this here poll is proof positive that there is something well and truly fucked up in the heads of a quarter of Americans.

Miranda rights and WRONGS

In Washington State, it is perfectly legal for a *minor*, even a mentally handicap minor, to be questioned by police without a parent, or representative of, present. If they want an attorney present they need to ask for one.

I am aghast by this, especially since I do not think that any child, shy of a seasoned criminal, is going to think to ask, especially if they are being accused...