Credo in unum Deum

The Chapel is doing the Trinitine Rite Mass today. In the original Latin. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that I don't know Latin, and the entire Mass is sung. The priest will be doing most of the singing, but I as the choir director am expected to be able to sing the parts normally sung by the congregation. Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.

So I've found myself trying to learn Latin just so that I can perform those songs. And I can't say that I've done a very good job. It's at this point that I want to go back many years and curse whoever at my high school decided that Latin didn't need to be offered as a language course. So I took Spanish. Grrrrrrrrrr. For all that Spanish is a Latin language, I would have been better off taking Swahili instead and learning Latin from scratch.

Ah well...... the one thing a choir director needs to have is a complete and total lack of shame or pride, because you're going to mess SOMETHING up, and you can't care about it. You just need to keep on going and pick up where you left off. I don't think anyone in the congregation will notice, but I'm pretty sure the Priest is going to have some words for me after the Mass.

Off I go. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: You know what today was? Today was God telling me that I need to be more humble.

Thatisall.

Photo Time

I've been avoiding politics quite a bit this weekend, just because I don't feel like having my blood pressure spike through the roof. So, here's a little set of photos that I took on Ft. Lewis, WA. I enjoy taking sets of photos of the same thing from different perspectives, and one night the fog was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. It did interesting things with the streetlights behind the trees.

So, we have a close up. 346KB


Stepping back. 391KB


Stepping farther back. 356KB


With that, I'm off for the rest of the day. Have a great weekend!

The Decline Begins

I think Australia will soon find out that once you elect a power-hungry nanny-statist into office, you're going to have a hard time kicking him out.

In the meantime, enjoy all those extra laws, extra taxes, and extra bullshit.

Calling all artists

Michelle Malkin is having a contest! Heh. I might just see what I can whip up.

Have I mentioned how awesome my wife is lately?

Yesterday the Ragin' Mrs. put out a spread that defies any general description.

Duck with garlic, cranberry and chipotle dressing.
Duck with garlic, orange and cranberry dressing.
Home cured ham.
Homemade sourdough-rosemary rolls.
Mashed potatoes.
Candied yams.
Green bean casserole.
Appetizers of every variety. Different kinds of olives, peppers, a cheese tray, smoked salmon, the works.
Home made Pumpkin-pecan pie.
Home made spiced carrot cake with white chocolate.

All put out of a kitchen the size of a small closet. I don't think the English language contains the words to describe just how well I ate yesterday, or how MUCH. We had some friends over and we all had to unbutton our pants when we were done.

Yes, my wife rocks.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope every one of you readers have a great holiday with friends and family.

And pray for those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Coastguardsmen and Marines who are celebrating Thanksgiving far away from their families.

AAR

That's After Action Review for those who aren't in the Army. The funeral detail went well as far as my section was concerned. I was able to get enough practice in for my team to be able to perform.

I'll say nothing about the other section.

I didn't want to post on this

Because quite honestly, if I posted on this, I would go onto a rant about how every MFCS in congress needs to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.

They do. You know they do. Congress is nothing more than a chamber full of people who are stealing the oxygen that actual humans need to live.

Photo Time

Since I'm going to be busy with a Funeral Detail today.....


This is shot of the cathedral in Panama City, right outside our hotel. Panama was the first Funeral Detail I ever performed.

It's 346KB if you want to download it.

Another Sad Detail

I have another funeral detail tomorrow. Not a KIA, but someone who died of cancer in the States.

Still, it's never a pleasant detail. Death is death, and grief is grief, no matter how it comes or how it plays out.

There's a lot going on, and I may end up with an Article 15 if the worthless assholes down here don't get their shit together. I've said it before - a funeral is for the family. Yes, we want to honor the dead. Yes, we want to show our respect. But the dead doesn't really care; he's DEAD. We could give him a 21 gun salute or dump him into the ocean, and it doesn't matter to the dead.

But to the FAMILY........ well now, there's a different story.

I've never turned down a funeral detail. Period, end of story. Someone from HQ calls me and says "Dave, we need someone for a funeral detail" and I say "Yes." I wish I could say the same for the rest of the so-called "solders" on this piece of shit island. There are too many people in this command who call themselves a Non-Commissioned Officer, but in reality are nothing more than a pay grade. They're not Sergeants or Staff Sergeants, they're an E-5 or an E-6.

Any NCO's will probably know what I mean.

But that's a story for another day. As for me, I'm going to bed. See you all later, providing that I don't break my foot off in the ass of some idiotic, whiny, sniveling, spineless, greedy, worthless festering pus-bubble that dares call himself a "Soldier".

Tomorrow's Republican trophy wives

And the pictures, they'll burn, of the slacker (D)emocrats they used to date.

My favorite trophy wife? Jeri Thompson of course.

The (D)emocrat's Mexifada

There is a common theme that has emerged amongst the posts on my blog this week. See if it leaps out at you too.

CNN MassDerbate

Doug Ross:All six of CNN's "undecided voters" were Democratic operatives

A Democratic Party bigwig

An antiwar activist

A Union official

An Islamic leader

A Harry Reid staffer

A radical Chicano separatist

In other words... a representative sample of the (D)emocrat party.

By "radical Chicano separatist" he means:

"my name is George R. Ambriz, former student of Western New Mexico University, more importantly, a former M.E.Ch.A. President... we worked in sync... with the local and state Democratic Party to inform many people about the importance of voting..."

MEChA is a race-based supremacist organization... kinda like the KKK, or La Raza

These are race-based activist groups the (D)emocrat party have embraced as preferential constituencies to the extent they will showcase their claims of 'victimhood' in staged "debates" of the "issues". If you are outraged by that consider the obvious next step of criminalizing the exposure of the haters:

Orwell was an Englishman

Iain Murray notes that when viewers complained about broadcasts that showed video of a hate-spewing Islamo-fascist Imam the authorities investigated the network that dared broadcast that video.

Criminalization that includes the John Doe lawsuits against the whistleblowers baited by the flying Imams stage play as well as:

The Libel Tourist

In a now infamous case of "libel tourism" Cambridge University Press not only capitulated to a lawsuit by pulping copies of Alms for Jihad (a book about the funding of terrorism), but even called on American libraries to withdraw and destroy their own copies of the book.

Only in the UK? Sorry, No. The tactics are already in use here:

Oregon exports 'Red Shirt' trainees

Oregon's gov't union operatives have trained, aided and abetted voter-blockers in Oklahoma and other states.

These "voter-blockers" were stopping signature gathering on voter initiatives to remove race-based preferences. Watch the video to see real "Brown Shirt" tactics in their developmental stage.

Then consider the MainStreamMedia's propaganda campaign to create the false perception that there are victims at risk:

AP lies to advance the agenda : Hate crimes rose 8 percent in 2006

The fact that far less then 1/1000 criminal events could be described, by the victims, as a "hate crime", does not make them a "hate crime". Additionally the infrequency of such 'rare' events undermines any trend analysis even if you did use the same "reporting agencies" from year to year.

...

Your chances of winning the lottery are greater then being a victim of a "hate crime" in America... unless it's self-inflicted to "raise-awareness"

Then consider the hypocrisy of the faux-victim Tawana Brawley, who like the Jena-6 and the false accuser of the Duke La Crosse players, who all were in fact committing a racially biased 'hate crime' while demanding preferential treatment as hate-crime victims.

But just when you thought the (D)emocrats couldn't provide any more material aid to the race-baiting agenda you read this:

¿Habla Español?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has moved to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. Among the employers targeted by such lawsuits: the Salvation Army.

Now do you believe that (D)emocrats want Illegals to provide the votes Americans Won't!

Ugly Clinton Rising

Hillary(D) is an activist for illegal aliens... just google how many times she has spoken before the racist organization La Raza, NCLR, (which tranlates as 'The Race'), whose motto is:

"For La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada"

(For The Race everything. Outside The Race, nothing)

Did you really think it stopped with drivers licenses for illegals?

My point? The common theme?

Are you one of the preferential 'victim class'... or their intended target?

I don't care what color, or what religion, or sex or creed etc etc anyone is... I, and my family, even qualify for a number of these preferential groups. I just don't happen to be a racial supremacist.

The risks? Besides diversion of our tax-dollars against our will to racially defined preference groups?

CIA/FBI agent Jihad Jane

Richard Spencer:

An espionage case has come to light in Detroit that has a little of everything: besides espionage, there’s an illegal immigration angle, a Keystone Kops angle, and even involvement of major presidential candidates. It would make a great movie -- if this kind of thing doesn’t kill us first.

Debbie Schlussel:

Prouty's lawbreaking was eventually exposed because of ongoing investigations of her brother-in-law, indicted Hezbollah financier Talal Chahine (to whom she is accused of disclosing classified information on three Hezbollah-related investigations that involve him).

Richard Spencer:

Several weeks ago I wrote about La Shish, a restaurant chain owned by Talal Chahine, who has fled the country to escape indictment for evading taxes and sending the restaurant money to Hizballah (to the tune of $20 million). La Shish was one of the sponsors of the Arab American Institute’s recent conference, where Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards addressed the crowd via video, while Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Republican candidate Ron Paul attended in person.
The candidates were falling all over themselves to condemn “racial profiling” -- anti-terror efforts be damned -- and grovel for the Arab vote. Did they know that one of the conference’s principal sponsors was under indictment for funding a terrorist group?

So do you really believe

"There's no relationship between immigration and terrorism." -- a spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza after 9/11

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

What a flaming crock

Of bovine fecal matter! This editor of the Seattle times just oozes with arrogance and idiocy combined. There's no one quote that I can pluck out to show what a worthless, smegma oozing pustule this creep really is, the whole thing really needs to be read. But the gist of the piece is this:

Newspapers are the bastion of truth, and blogs are just rumour-mongers. It's not the journalist's fault that newspapers are falling in circulation and losing money. It's all the fault of someone else.

I suppose that the massive over-hyping of Abu Ghraib and the silence on any positive news coming out of Iraq aren't any reason why newspapers are having problems. Nope, that couldn't be it.

I suppose the massive political bias in newsrooms that is transferred to the newspapers can't be to blame. Nope, nah, that couldn't be it.

I suppose the partisan editorials passed off as "news" aren't the reason either.

I suppose the peddling of rumours, half-truths and outright lies as "fact" and "news" don't have anything to do with it? Nah, of course not!

Newspapers are struggling because they have stopped reporting the actual events and now function as a mouthpiece for the various leftist points of view in this country. In short, they're not newspapers at all, but propaganda organs. And I refuse to pay to read someone's propaganda. The only section I pick up from a newspaper is the Sports section. Everything else can go to hell.

Photo Time

Germany, as seen from the back of a C-17 Globemaster.


482KB, if you want to download it.

There are none so blind

As those who refuse to see. Instapundit links to the Boston Globe, who's headline is "Effectiveness of D.C. gun ban still a mystery."

It's not a mystery. IT IS A COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM! After thirty years of high crime rates, including rape, murder, theft, burglary, and other assorted violent crimes, you would think that sane, rational people would look at the ban and figure out that BANNING FIREARMS DOES NOT WORK!

Unfortunately, those who would ban firearms are neither sane nor logical. Otherwise they would have already figured it out, instead of having to be reminded on a daily basis.

My wishfull thinking

Powerline has obtained a copy of a letter sent out by Sanford University law professors, who are trying to prevent the military from sending JAG recruiters to their campus. You can go read the whole thing. I am always amazed by people who are so well educated being such complete morons.

My wishful thinking comes in when I read this reply. I don't know if anyone will ever send that reply back to the dumb-assed idiots at Stanford, but I really, really, REALLY wish that some law student would.

Grief

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble.

At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like Mother of Pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.

He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?"

"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there". The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.

"There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them.

"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is Heaven," was the answer.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No. I can see how you might think so, but we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."

Digger will be waiting for you when you get there, Rachel. I truly do believe that.

National Ammo Day

You know the deal, folks. Go out and buy 100 rounds of ammunition from a local gun dealer. Support those who support the 2nd Amendment!

And since it's Sunday

Here's a photo of a cathedral in Helena, Montana. I had climbed to the top of Mt. Helena, and when I looked down at the town it was the first building to catch my eye.

So I photographed it. 817KB, if you want to download it.

Ragin' Dave's Quote of the Day

From Rodger Schlong

Some years ago, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I was watching C-Span. Gus Hall, the late American Communist Party Boss was giving a speech to a bunch of empty chairs. That was followed by Dick Gerhardt speaking to some other group. It was quite uncanny (and why I remember it) that the two gentlemen made nearly identical points, using nearly identical language. Things have only gone downhill for Democrats since then. Socialists? Maybe, but a socialist is only a communist without a gun.

I am SO stealing that.

Photo Time

Continuing a trend, here's a photo of something that fascinated me in the Dominican Republic. They would thatch the roof of any building they could with palms from local trees, interweaving them into one continuous roof. They worked like a charm, too. The dining area where we stayed was covered with this thatching, and when it rained we never got a drop of water on us.

So naturally, I took a picture of it from the inside. It's 1.51MB if you want to download it.

Camera ordered

I decided on the Nikon D40x. We ordered it from AAFES online, because we saved a flaming assload of money. I'd love to have it right now, but I'll delay my gratification in order to save that much cash.

Once I get it in my hot little hands, I'll post a few test shots for y'all.

Another anti-war, anti-military headline

I know, I know, it's a shockah!

Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam War, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year.

OMFG! UP 80%! A 42% JUMP! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DOOOOOOOOOO?!?!?!?!?!

You want to know what percentage of soliders are deserting? Less than 1%.

According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared to 3,301 last year.

But I guess that "LESS THAN 1% OF SOLDIERS DESERT THE ARMY" doesn't make a good, solid anti-war headline, does it?

Worthless goat-humping, anti-American idiots of the MSM.

(D)ems enable Iranian nuclear weapons

The 'Cold War', or WWIII, saw a corrupt tyranny eventually collapse attempting to face down the American Republic. For all the frightening moments the morally bankrupt strategy of "MAD", or Mutually Assured Destruction, seemed to keep both sides in check until that unexpected, although in hindsight inevitable, collapse.

But I have a rhetorical question for you. Is a militant theological tyranny, such as that ruling Iran, rational enough to be held in check by MAD or are their pronouncements not rhetoric and indicators they will in fact continue to pursue an ever escalating proxy war against their perceived enemies?

This... is funny:Strangers on my flight
Why?

Will it be 'funny' when Iran's Hezbollah drives a nuclear weapon into East Jerusalem and levels that city making a fallout poisoned wasteland out of a city holy to Christians and Jews for thousands of years?

Because of the UN's IAEA enablement Iran is in fact only months away from deploying that first nuclear weapon:

Decision time for US over Iran threat

Iran has installed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium - enough to begin industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel and build a warhead within a year...

How hard does the UN's IAEA and it's Egyptian head Mohamed ElBaradei work to enable Iran's nuclear weapons program?

The IAEA says the uranium being produced is only fuel grade (enriched to 4%)...

"only fuel grade"? Which UN's IAEA "knows" about a plant they are not allowed to inspect because the Iranians tell them so... even as the Iranians hand over plans for nuclear warheads they purchased from Pakistan's nuclear proliferator:
AQKhan?

A nuclear weapon is the only sort of warhead Iran's multiple-warhead rockets can usefully deliver.

I'm always annoyed when the MainStreamMedia propagates the lies of the terror supporting Mullahs by insisting on parroting the fraud that the Iranians are enriching Uranium for "peaceful purposes". Why? Why is it so obvious Iran is lying?

Iran has no generators, for converting nuclear plants energy to electricity, and no plans to buy any.

No transmission lines are being laid... past the anti-Aircraft emplacements.

Iran actually has no nuclear reactors to consume the fuel. Zero.

The Russian ones under construction obligate the Iranians to buy fuel from Russia.

Iran also doesn't have the technical capacity to clad the fuel rods, for use in a nuclear reactor, even if they could enrich fuel.

So only a liar would tell you that Iran isn't enriching uranium for the same reason Saddam Hussein was... which is why we removed almost 400 tons of Yellowcake Uranium and a couple of tons of partially enriched uranium from Iraq.

But that misleading statement isn't the only "BigLie" advanced by the UN's IAEA. They also invent excuses to delay action:

Against the fraught backdrop, a meeting of senior officials from the UN security council's five permanent members and Germany to decide on sanctions, planned for Monday, was put off after the Chinese delegation said it could not attend.

The critical meeting has been pushed back to later this month, giving time for the six-nation group's negotiator, Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, to hold last-ditch talks with Iranian officials.

...

David Albright, a former UN inspector and now an independent nuclear expert in Washington, said ElBaradei appeared to be trying to put "a happy face" on a worsening situation. "The main issue is that Iran now has 3,000 centrifuges," he said. "The report doesn't even judge the quality of the information being offered, but it's clear it is giving minimal answers."

Micheal Goldfarb mocks the UN

Iran "Generally Truthful" on Nukes

Now the IAEA's report is out, and they find the Iranians to be "generally truthful." The Iranians had "accidentally" received blueprints for a nuclear warhead (as part of an illegal transfer of nuclear know-how), which were "accidentally" discovered by the IAEA, and we are still supposed to believe that (a) they aren't working towards a nuclear weapon, (b) they don't have other blueprints with which they weren't quite so careless, and (c) the IAEA's standard for compliance has always been "generally truthful." This wishful thinking can only lead to one conclusion--a nuclear Iran. And, while the use of force to prevent such an outcome is certain to be painful for all parties involved, diplomacy just isn't going to work, because the IAEA is all trust, and no verify.

Stanley Kurtz notes the MSM's complicity

Iran's 3000 Centrifuges

If you thought the press was burying news about the surge, look at what they’re doing to the nuclear news from Iran.

...

The New York Times has buried its story on page 12, while The Washington Post has gone deeper still, at page 22.

...

This confirmation of 3,000 Iranian centrifuges is a front-page story. There is simply no excuse for burying it, or for playing down its significance.

It isn't just the UN & the MainStreamMedia that enables Iran's proxy war criminals:

Video: Palestinian Terrorists Take Classes from the Red Cross

Wow. Talk about a mind-bending video. This slice of propaganda comes from the sanitized, slicked-up English version of Al Jazeera, as masked Palestinian terrorists attend International Humanitarian Law and First Aid training classes run by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Al Jazeera tries to show us the human side of a gang of remorseless murderers. Without taking off the masks, of course.

But the lowest of the low... the most inexcusable element of the apeasement-enablement of Islamofascist terror has to be America's (D)emocrats. As KLo illustrates

From Pete Hoekstra

“Today’s vote is another unnecessary political stunt by Democrats in the House. Congress should focus on continuing to support America’s military and intelligence professionals as they work to improve security and stability, not micromanaging for political gain a very real struggle against radical jihadists.

“I want to bring the courageous men and women of our military home quickly and safely as much as anybody, but just as we are beginning to see tangible improvements in security in Iraq, now is not the time to burden the effort with the same old political maneuvers of the past—maneuvers that have already failed 40 times.”

Duane R. Patterson

Go Ahead, Democrats. I Dare You. Cut The Money For The Military.

The House of Representatives, in classic mob rule style, passed the "cut the money and run away" bill late last night, sending it along to Reid and the Democrats this morning.

But cutting the funds, by vote or delay, is only part of the strategy to force an American defeat to Iran's proxy warriors in Iraq:

US Democrats slam Iraqi government

"Every place you go you hear about no progress being made in Iraq," said Senate Democratic majority leader Harry Reid.

"The government is stalemated today, as it was six months ago, as it was two years ago," Reid told reporters, warning US soldiers were caught in the middle of a civil war.

"It is not getting better, it is getting worse," he said.

"worse'? Again... another "BigLie"...

Sweetness & Light notes the (D)efeaticrats are cutting funding by running:

Senate Dems Refuse To Fund Troops This Year

Once again Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrats who are trying to force this issue are showing themselves to be traitors to this country, plain and simple.

They are so desperate to try to make us lose a war that we clearly winning that they will do anything, even stab our soldiers in the back by denying them funding while they are on the battlefield.

These are Senators?

These are Americans?

James W. Ceaser

The Democrats' dilemma.

WILL ANY OF the Democratic candidates be able to summon the courage to concede an American victory in Iraq?

...

..."facts on the ground" now at least admit a trend leading to what might reasonably be called victory: a suppression of the insurgency; a steep reduction in the level of domestic, sectarian violence; the existence of a constitutional government not unfriendly to America; a gradual reduction of American force presence with diminishing American casualties; and the assurance for a period of a continued base of operations from which to handle other possible contingencies in the region.

But if this outcome "on the ground" can be called victory--and why should it not be?--there is a huge potential problem looming in our ability to acknowledge it.

Charles Krauthammer blasts another "BigLie" of the (D)efeaticrats:

Someone better tell Democrats

WASHINGTON - When the Democratic presidential candidates pause from beating Hillary with a stick, they join in unison to pronounce the Democratic pieties, chief among which is that George Bush has left our alliances in ruins. As Clinton puts it, we have “alienated our friends,” must “rebuild our alliances” and “restore our standing in the world.” That’s mild. The others describe Bush as having a scorched-earth foreign policy that has left us reviled and isolated in the world.

The Democrats are living in what Bob Woodward would call a state of denial. Do they not notice anything?

France has a new president who is breaking not just with the anti-Americanism of the Chirac era but with 50 years of Fifth Republic orthodoxy that defined French greatness as operating in counterpoise to America. Nicolas Sarkozy’s trip last week to the United States was marked by a highly successful White House visit and a rousing speech to Congress in which he not only called America “the greatest nation in the world” but pledged solidarity with the U.S. on Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, the Middle East and nuclear nonproliferation. This just a few months after he sent his foreign minister to Iraq to signal an openness to cooperation and an end to Chirac’s obstructionism.

...

...new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who noted “the great change that is taking place,” namely “that France and Germany and the European Union are also moving more closely with America.”

...

...relations with Australia are very close, and Canada has shown remarkable steadfastness in taking disproportionate casualties in supporting the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Eastern European nations, traditionally friendly, are taking considerable risks on behalf of their U.S. alliance. And ties with Japan have never been stronger.

A-J-Strata thinks

Tide Turning Against Democrats On Iraq

Calling for defeat in the face of victory is NEVER going to be a popular position.

And finally there is some puchback:

SecDef Gates cowboys up against the surrendercrat Congress

... it’s telling that Congress apparently doesn’t even understand how the DoD’s budget even works. Just what exactly is this Congress good for if it doesn’t even understand its most basic Constitutional role?

We need much more of this:

Video: Gen. Casey pwns Ted Kennedy

Everyone’s probably watching the Democrat debate, but here’s a clip that’s worth preserving. During budget testimony today, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey faced off against Sen. Ted Kennedy. Kennedy snarked about the state of the military and asked sarcastically which enemy that it has faced has put the Army in the state that it’s in. Gen. Casey’s answer, more or less, is the Democrats who cut the military’s budget in the 1990s have put the Army in the state that it’s in.

NRO editors

Democratic Fantasyland

What was it that Hillary Clinton once said about the willing suspension of disbelief? For congressional Democrats, that line has gone from a put-down (of Gen. David Petraeus’s testimony before Congress) to a way of life. On Iraq, Democrats now live in a fantasy world. That’s why they can ignore the surge’s success and — after all we’ve learned over the last year — persist in trying to condition funding of the Iraq war on a drawdown of troops by the end of 2008.

...

As the political tide in Congress has ebbed away from the hard antiwar Democrats over the last year, their Iraq proposals have gone from dangerous, to contemptible, to — now — simply pathetic.

VDH on the (D)efeaticrats

Very Useful Idiots

Iraqis associate cynicism, even anti-Arabism not with hard-nosed Republicans, but with liberal, supposedly idealistic Democratic liberals, whose serial trashing of them is constantly aired in Iraq...

The New Iraqi Debate

Now that the Democrats suspect that the U.S. is not only not losing Iraq, but may well “win”—victory being defined by stabilizing the country with a radical cessation of violence—expect the critique suddenly to morph as well.

Moving the goalposts... again...

Also expect Democrats to find ways to exaggerate the aggregate costs (like counting the rise from 20-100 dollars a barrel for oil entirely due to the Iraqi war without notice of the new Chinese/Indian demand, unrest in Africa, and declining production from the UK to the US)...

No 'War for No Oil'?

...the US military has eliminated a large number of terrorists, insurgents and general terrorists since 2003. Given the noxious fumes of Vietnam-era “body-counts” we don’t mention this. But many of the sheiks suffered horrendous losses among their tribes to the US in the past four years that led to some demoralization and the simple absence of their more skilled and veteran fighters. So, when they weighed the odds—increasing oil-generated wealth on the one hand versus being mowed down by the US on the other—the choice was to join us.

In other words... America is winning and the American military is getting a lot better in spite of the (D)emocrat's claims and efforts.

But those distractions enabled Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

More White-Flag Waving from the Left

Yeah, it's a little old (boy, is it!) but it's worth mentioning that the Democrat American Communist Party is one again trying to fight against victory for all they're worth. Only this time, Defense Secretary Gates let them have it with both barrels:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that unless Congress passes funding for the Iraq war within days, he will direct the Army and Marine Corps to begin developing plans to lay off employees and terminate contracts early next year…

“There is a misperception that this department can continue funding our troops in the field for an indefinite period of time through accounting maneuvers, that we can shuffle money around the department. This is a serious misconception,” Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.

As a result, he said that he is faced with the undesirable task of preparing to cease operations at Army bases by mid-February, and lay off about 100,000 defense department employees and an equal number of civilian contractors. A month later, he said, similar moves would have to be made by the Marines.

Some members of Congress believe the Pentagon can switch enough money to cover the war accounts, Gates said. But he added that he only has the flexibility to transfer about $3.7 billion — which is just one week’s worth of war expenses. Lawmakers, he said, may not understand how complicated and restrictive the situation is.

I say let's start the layoffs in Democrat American Communist Party Districts, starting with Murtha's home territory. We can then move to Feinstein's home base and continue on down the line.

This is all a snowball effect from the military cuts during the 1990's. We have civilian contracters in Iraq right now, doing jobs that the military should be doing. And they're doing this for two reasons - 1) as the military has been cut in half, many of the support positions were eliminated. Cooks, mechanics, laundry, showers, all of them took hits. So now we have civilians in Iraq making $60-$70k cooking meals, or doing laundry. 2) Since it's not the military supplying these contracters in many cases, then it's not the military that's paying for all of them. The military budget could not pay all of them. The military budget as a percentage of GDP is the smallest it's been since before WWII. And the hacks in Congress want to start playing games with it. Again.

So now we have the Democrat American Communist Party playing their games with the military that they loath and refuse to support. At least someone is calling them on it.

Kennedy snarked about the state of the military and asked sarcastically which enemy that it has faced has put the Army in the state that it’s in. Gen. Casey’s answer, more or less, is the Democrats who cut the military’s budget in the 1990s have put the Army in the state that it’s in.

A-friggin'-men, General.

Sickening

I read this story with disgust, but truth be told I don't see a damn thing happening about it.

Witnesses who spoke with the AP said that, despite pledges to deliver adoptable strays to shelters and humanely euthanize the rest, the island's leading private animal control companies generally did neither.

News that live animals had been thrown to their deaths from a bridge reached the public last month when Animal Control Solutions, a government contractor, was accused of inhumanely killing some 80 dogs and cats seized from three housing projects in the town of Barceloneta. A half dozen survived the fall of at least 50 feet.

The AP probe, which included visits to two sites where animals were slaughtered, found the inhumane killings were far more extensive than that one incident. The AP saw and was told about a scale and brutality far beyond even what animal welfare
activists suspected, stretching over the last eight years.

People in Puerto Rico don't have the same attitudes towards pets that Americans do. It's common for someone to just drive their dog out to the middle of nowhere and drop them off when the owners get tired of the pet. I've seen packs of stray dogs everywhere I go.

The pet disposal scandal adds to Puerto Rico's poor reputation for treatment of animals. Cockfighting is legal, with matches shown on television. One of the island's beaches is known as Dead Dog Beach - a place where teenagers drive over live puppies sealed in bags or cruelly kill them with machetes and arrows, according to animal welfare groups that photographed the atrocities.

My parents always told me that if you want to see a person's true nature, you must observe them doing one of two things - driving, or playing sports. Because that's when the mask slips. They concentrate on doing something else, and not on putting up a show for the world. I would add that how a person treats their pet is an indicator of how they'll treat someone else.

A former Animal Control Solutions employee told the AP that he witnessed another worker in 2005 dragging 12 to 15 small dogs out of a van along a road outside San Juan. Normally, workers injected animals with a euthanasia drug but on this day there was none. The animals were instead given an overdose of a sedative and flung 50 feet into a trash-filled gully. Some of the dogs were alive as they crashed on top of junked beds, bottles and other garbage.

"I could hear some of the dogs whimpering as they hit the tree branches and then the ground," the former employee said as he stood with AP journalists in the muck at the site, which still holds the stench of death.

Not all the dogs died, however. A dog that was not a stray, but a sickly pet whose owner wanted it euthanized, managed to limp home. The angry owner telephoned the company and demanded it retrieve the dog and do the job right, the former employee recalled.

Do you feel sick yet?

One dog, stuffed in a sack, was found recently at the Cayey site among other bagged carcasses. It apparently survived the fall and managed to poke its head out of the bag before dying, said Carmen Cintron, who runs an animal shelter.

I can't wait to leave. I really, really cannot wait to leave.

Oh, for Pete's sake! Part I-don't-know

Look, I'm Catholic. But this kind of thing pisses me off.

Proclaiming a sense of new energy and empowerment, the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday issued instructions to Catholic voters that their eternal salvation could be at stake when they cast ballots.

Bishops emphasized that voters must consider the church’s teachings on abortion and other moral issues when they select a candidate for the White House or any other office. If they don’t, bishops said, it’s not clergy who will judge them but God.

Here's my problem. I firmly believe that the church has no business in politics, other than as a matter of a politician's personal faith. While I faith in the church, I have little to no faith in an individual who dabbles in politics, and any man of the cloth who feels the need to interject himself into a political race immediately earn my suspicion.

The church has dabbled in politics before. The result wasn't pretty. Let the church be the church. They have no need to lower themselves to politics.

It needs to be repeated

Surfing the web, I see that Mrs. du Toit has read the same piece I did today. But she had a remark that needs to be repeated:

I’ll be the first person to champion the cause of equal rights for women but it has a caveat and it is a big one: As long as they accept the benefits AND the risks (or the rights AND the responsibilities). Women are still being coddled only now they demand it. They want to have all the “choice” in these situations and all the empowerment, but when it comes to accepting the consequences for their decisions (which in the case of having a child is footing the cost for raising the child) she wants… BZZZT… a man to be forced to do it.

Sorry, honey. You want the choice, you get all that goes with that.

That does not, however, let the man off the moral hook. A truly honorable man would:
1. Not have sex outside of wedlock.
2. Would not engage in sex without birth control, unless he wanted a child.
3. Support his offspring, regardless of the circumstances of their creation.

But that doesn’t mean you get to bring the Jack Booted Thug to the party.

We HAVE a mechanism whereby a woman can be assured that her children will be supported by their father. It is called marriage. Without it, you got nada in the way of guarantees.... which, by the way, is FINE if a woman doesn’t want those guarantees, but she doesn’t get to play BOTH sides of the fence. You either get married with all the requirements of that arrangement, and with that you have financial security for yourself and your children, or you go it alone.

It’s not rocket science.

Spread the word.

Hypocrites

Via Michelle Malkin, I see that some sanctimonious prick is once again lambasting conservatives for driving big trucks and SUV's. And he's doing it from the Huffington Post.

Uh-huh. I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. You want to know when I'll actually think about getting serious about conserving gas?

When the hypocritical shitheads move out of their huge mansions in California, Massachusetts, New York and Tennessee (and various other places that I haven't mentioned).

When the hypocritical shitheads stop using more electricity in one month than I use all year. (This one is for you, Al)

When the hypocritical shitheads stop flying their private jets all over the place and fly in coach like I do.

When the hypocritical shitheads get rid of their own huge SUV's, limo, and other gas-guzzling vehicles that they use to parade around in.

In short, when the hypocritical shitheads actually use less gas, oil, electricity and wood than I do! As Instapundit has said a few times "I'll believe it's a crisis when the people who claim it's a crisis actually start acting like it's a crisis." I'll be damned if I listen to a bunch of eco-freak "do as I say not as I do" loons who get their jollies off of telling other people what to do while they go do whatever the hell they want to.

Piss on 'em all.

Run for your lives!

My wife brought home a lable-making machine last night.

Shortly after she opened it, the poor dog had a label on her head that read "Dog". I'm half-afraid to sleep at night, lest I wake up with a "husband" label put on me while I slumber. I almost expect to see the labels "Front Door", "Sofa" and "Refrigerator" when I get home today.

My new word of the month!

GOONBATS - (gōōn-bat)
- noun

1. a person of Leftist ideology coupled with violent tendencies, wild imagination, prone to over-react and completely unable to deal with reality.

See also - Protests in Olympia, WA. Not only are these people crazy as shithouse rats, but their irrationality and avoidance of logic and truth are once again coupled with violence. And the city of Olympia seems to not care, as the reaction to these thugs has been damn near nil.

They're not using enough pepper spray in my opinion. Of course, I'd not only be using pepper spray but baseball bats, sledgehammers and other various implements that I might find.

You want to know what's really messed up? You want to know how I'm steadfast in my knowledge that these stupid bastards don't possess human intelligence? They're protesting military equipment that's coming back into this country. They're not preventing anything from going to Iraq; they're preventing people from going home!

They are not anti-war. They are just on the other side.

Dean's Bike-Path to Heaven

Allahpundit notes Dean is again Holier-then-though:

Pope Dean-o: Democratic Party believes “there are no bars to heaven for anybody”

Why did this numbnuts frame the issue in terms of the Republican versus Democratic Parties when he’s really making a point about Christian doctrine? Might it have something to do with the left’s newfound interest in wooing religious voters?

I’d be more impressed if Mr. Bike-Path to Heaven didn’t believe in accelerants for Jews.
Dean’s Prayer:

Our Society, who art in Washington, hallowed be thy bike-path.
Thy Taxes come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in our delusions.
Give us this day our welfare state.
Forgive us our fabrications, as we refuse to forgive those who we imagine lie against us.
And lead us not into rational thought, but deliver us from the Republicans. A-persons.

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

Worthless idiots in the Government

While that would normally produce a "Well, DUH!" from my readers, the focus of my ire today is the State Department. Judging from old Foggy Bottom's actions during the Bush administration, one would be able to think that the State Department's goals and objectives are to work against the USA, rather than for us. Well, this latest bit of pablum is just more confirmation: "This Pretty Much Kills the Iran Democracy Program"

WASHINGTON — The former director of President Bush's flagship democracy program for the Middle East is saying that the State Department has "effectively killed" a program to disburse millions of dollars to Iran's liberal opposition.

In an interview yesterday, Scott Carpenter said a recent decision to move the $75 million annual aid program for Iranian democrats to the State Department's Office of Iranian Affairs would effectively neuter an initiative the president had intended to spur democracy inside the Islamic Republic.

You know what I would like? I'd like to find a solution to the Iran problem that does NOT include dropping bombs and sending in troops. And I'd fund whatever program out there might get me that solution.

I guess the State Department feels differently.

Hell, this is the same department where so many spineless, bootlicking pustules were whining about being sent overseas that one of their own felt the need to bitchslap them. The list of things that the State Department has screwed up in this decade alone would take gigabytes of space to document. Well, chalk another screwup to them.

I'm wondering just what it's going to take to clean them up. Or if they can actually be cleaned up. I don't think they can.

More enemies within

Found this while surfing over at Malkin's place:

But that was nothing compared to the damage done in the dark hours of Sunday morning by vandals who kicked down thousands of the flags and left behind a cardboard sign with a single word splattered in red spray paint: “MURDERERS.”

Yeah, they support the troops - on the other side. Does anyone know what holidays the Leftists hold sacred? I'd love to be able to show the same amount of disrespect as they show my country day after day.

Anti-War propaganda bombing... still...

Previously I complained:

Anti-War propaganda bombing...

...what Iraq War movies have been released that aren't condescending anti-war/anti-American propaganda?

The most recent effort:

Lions For Lambs

Cost est. $35 million

Opening Weekend Domestic Gross : $ 6,710,000

Bomb...

Or more accurately... suicide bombing.

Don't 'cha love it when bad things happen to people that deserve every bit of it?

Let's repost Jonah Goldberg's points:

'Anti-' doesn't sell

We've all heard the stories, many true, some apocryphal, of soldiers returning home from Vietnam only to be disrespected and shunned by an ungrateful nation. How many were called war criminals or spat upon is as controversial as it is unknowable. But there's one thing we know our troops never experienced. We never filled the movie theaters during wartime with films calling them war criminals, rapists and, figuratively, spitting on them or on their mission.

Mickey Kaus

Are Hollywood's Iraq dramas bombing because...

a) people don't want to hear about Iraq or b) people don't want to hear about Iraq from Hollywood liberals?

...

If there were an Iraq film not made by Hollywood liberals, we might be able to settle the argument.

Ace

Lions for Lambs...Slaughtered

Memo to Hollywood…we don’t hate America as much as you do. Want to make some money? Make a movie where Americans are the good guys and the terrorists are the bad guys.

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

Veteran's Day

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

History of Veteran's Day can be found here.

As for me, Veteran's Day is the day for me to reflect on all the men and women who have died for something greater than themselves. Whether it was to free themselves from tyranny, defend this country in it's early years, to right the horror of slavery, to defeat evil in it's many forms, or stand the wall facing our various enemies over the years, brave men and women have given their last full measure for this country and all who inhabit it. I personally don't think that one day to remember their sacrifice is enough. So make the most of it.

Thank a veteran. Volunteer at a local cemetery during the year. See if the VFW or American Legion need any help. Do just one small thing to recognize local vets. Because if everyone did just one small thing, the end result would be massive.

We enjoy the freedoms we have today because of those vet's sacrifices throughout the years.

Semper Fidelis

Today is the Marine Corps' birthday, as it were. Uncle Sam's Misguided Children were formed November 10th, 1775, and they've been putting the fear of God and America in our enemies ever since.

While I may be somewhat biased in my choice of service (GO ARMY!) the Marines have my utmost respect. My father spent 22 years as a Marine.

Yeah, we have some interesting family reunions.

DAD: So, what does Army stand for again? Ain't Real Marines Yet?

ME: Aren't the Marines just a sub-department of the Navy or something like that?

Anyways, Happy Birthday, Marines! No matter what uniform you wear, we all have the same first two letters - U.S.

Spread the news

Spread it. Spread it far and wide. Write people and have them link to Sondra's posts. And have those people write people they know.

I want this spread over the net in 24 hours or less. This is disgusting. This is foul. Abhorrent. This is a picture perfect example of Leftists in action. They don't care about anything but themselves.

I'm so pissed off after reading what Sondra went through that I can barely type. It's probably a good thing that I wasn't there, otherwise I would have spent the night in a jail cell after I busted a few heads. A few? Fuck it, I would have kept swinging until there wasn't any traitor left standing.

These people that Sondra describes ARE THE ENEMY. They are antithetical to everything America stands for. They don't deserve to be called Americans.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...............

Power Outage

They're cutting power to the post tomorrow for about 12 hours. I'll have my generator up and running, but it's main function is to keep the refrigerator cold. If I have some power cords left, I'll see if I can hook up the Internet.

So with that in mind, I'm going to post more pictures for you to download in case I don't get online tomorrow.

Sunset over Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 597KB


Rock Formation, Stevens Pass, Washington State. I took this shot when I lived in Seattle, and the Ragin' Mrs. and I went on a motorcycle trip. 801KB

Inner Gate, Castillo de San Cristobal, San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is the gate that was on the inside of the city, leading up to the main fortress. 1.31MB


Enjoy. I see ya when I see ya.

Not the fringe

Code Pink? MoveOn.org? Fringe?

Nope. Not when they have the ear of the Speaker of the House and control what the Democrat American Communist Party does and says. Despite all the success in Iraq, the Defeatocrats still want to surrender. They still want to run away in shrieking hysterics.

I'm so sick of them right now that I wouldn't piss on 'em if they were on fire.

And to pile on, anyone who says that Khalid Sheik Mohammad has the "moral high ground" is crazy as a shithouse rat. These are all just extra examples of why the Democrat American Communist Party is unfit to hold any position higher than local dog catcher.

UPDATE: Nailed it in one. Ouch.

Frankly, I don't understand why so many mock us for wanting a future for Iraq. Is your hatred for George Bush so great that you prefer to see millions of civilians suffer just to prove him wrong?

It really comes down to this: you are determined to see Iraq become a permanent hellhole because you hate Bush. And we are determined to see Iraq become a success, because we want to live.

It needs repeating

via Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

1. The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
2. The fifth would pay $1.
3. The sixth would pay $3.
4. The seventh would pay $7.
5. The eighth would pay $12.
6. The ninth would pay $18.
7. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

1. The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
2. The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
3. The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
4. The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
5. The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
6. The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. I only saved a dollar,too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

The next time some braindead idiot blurts out "TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!" just remind them that if everyone's tax rate gets cut by 10%, then those who only paid $10 in taxes get one dollar back. Those who paid $100 in taxes get ten dollars back. The percentage rate is exactly the same! There are no extra tax cuts for the rich, they just pay a hell of a lot more in taxes than the rest of us!

Anyone who doesn't understand that should be forced to take remedial economics classes until they can recite it in their sleep.

Brain Exercise

I was reading a post over at Mrs. du Toit's and the comments got me to thinking..... well, reading either of the du Toit's will get you to thinking, but this specific idea was about voting. The Founder's Intent was to have free, landowning men vote. Now, I don't know if that intent would be workable in today's day and age. To put it bluntly, there are enough people who pay taxes and put in their fair share who don't own land to make a sizable chunk of the population. When I lived in Seattle I was certainly paying quite a bit in taxes, but rented the house I lived in. We've gone far enough away from the Founder's intent with regards to taxation (income tax was unconstitutional until the 20th century) that we can no longer say that only landowners should be able to vote.

Yet, as another commenter at Mrs. du Toit's said:

I used to think that the free landowning men was the best possible alternative
... but more and more I’m thinking that it needs to be more along the line of
“them what pays, decides.”

I believe that a good portion of our problems in this country is due to the fact that we have a huge portion of people voting for things that they have no stake in whatsoever. If you're on welfare, sitting on your ass and taking money from the government, why should you care if taxes go up? You're not paying any taxes at all, so your decision does not effect you what so ever. On a personal level, you have no worries about jacking up tax rates, and more importantly you have no real prerogative to learn about why high tax rates are a bad thing to begin with.

All too often, it is only when you have a vested interest in something that you begin to educate your self on that subject.

Too many people today know little to nothing about the way the government is supposed to work. They know little to nothing about WHY the Founding Fathers set up the government the way they did. And most people I've met did not know that an income tax was NOT written in the constitution until the Sixteenth Amendment. Most people do not know that until the Seventeenth Amendment, Senators were elected by the state's legislature, NOT THE GENERAL POPULATION. The general population were responsible for electing their Representatives. Too many people don't even know what the Tenth Amendment states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Got that? If the constitution does not specifically say "This is what the Federal Government can do" then that power is automatically given to the states or to the people. The Constitution was, above all, a check on the power of the government itself, NOT ON THE PEOPLE!

It was all a system of checks and balances until people started screwing it up. We need to re-educate people on their government, but in order to do that we first have to ensure that the people voting have a vested interest in what their vote affects.

Anyways, that's my meandering thoughts for the day. Anyone want to try to clarify what I said? Go for it.

Oh, and as for what I would do to get people to "own" their vote? Simple - I would restrict voters to those who pay taxes. If you paid the government this year, you get to vote. If the government paid you, you don't get to vote. And I would bring my property tax bill to the voting station and pull the lever.

A day late and a (billion) dollars short

John F. Kerry has finally come up with a defense against the Viet Nam veterans who told the country what a worthless pile of excrement he is.....

back in 2004.

“We have put together a documented portfolio that frankly puts their lies in such a total light of absurdity and indecency, that should they ever rear their ugly heads again, we have every single ‘t’ crossed and ‘i’ dotted, and I welcome that in a sense,” Kerry said after addressing Boston’s South Shore Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a shame we weren’t able to produce all that at the time.”

This whole bruhaha started when 'ol Jonny "American troops love to rape and murder children" Kerry called up a few of his former sailors and said "This is my Band of Brothers!" on national TV.

To which the rest of the sailors who served under him said "Oh, HELL NO!"

John Kerry was such a despicable wanker back in '71 that the people he served with felt the need to tell the rest of the country what a worthless slimebag this douche was. They were not about to allow one of the perpetrators of the Winter Soldier hoax to go and try to lie about what he did. And now, three years after the fact, we're supposed to believe that he now has his defense prepared?

What an idiot. What a poltroon. What a brainless twit.

Here's a clue for John "I like to shoot my fellow veterans in the back" Kerry - why don't you sign the DD Form 180 to release your military personnel record, LIKE YOU SAID YOU WOULD BACK IN 2004, and let the record, your record, speak for itself?

Anything else is just an exercise in lies and obfuscation.

Oh, GREAT!

Iran just announced that they have 3,000 centrifuges. Which means that they could have a nuclear weapon within a year.

I have met people who actually believe that Iran just wants a nuclear power plant. No, really, stop laughing! These people actually believe it!

And those people are a bunch of naive morons.

Iran announced it's intention to build a nuke years ago. They've also stated that once they had one, Tel Aviv goes bye-bye. This is THE major state sponsor of terrorism, and yet there are people who still walk around convinced that Iran is just "misunderstood", or that they really didn't mean it, it was all talk, yada yada yada. How frigging self-deluded do you have to be in order to think that Iran would hesitate to nuke either Israel or the USA? What kind of sand-poundingly stupid idiot do you have to be in order to look at Iran's track record and say "Oh, I don't see a problem!"

As Captain Ed mentions, Iran doesn't even need to put a nuke on a missile in order to get it where they want it - they can just give it to the latest splodydope JERM (Jihadist Extreme Radical Muslim) and have them walk it across our nice open border. And when LA, or Phoenix, or Dallas, or Miami goes up in a mushroom cloud, the same mentally deficient morons who told us that Iran wasn't a threat will be the first to blame Bush, the Republicans, the neo-cons, the jews, and everyone else for the deaths.

Oh, and if Iran starts a nuclear war with Israel? Yeah, you can count on half of the Middle East becoming a flat, glowing pane of glass. And when most of the world's oil supply is unusable for the next ten-thousands years or so, what do you think will happen? How many millions of people will die? Perhaps it would even reach the billions?

Iran cannot be trusted with anything more dangerous than a rusty spoon. Letting them build a nuke would put the entire world at risk. And yet that seems to be just what many people are willing to let happen.

I wonder if Israel is going to have to do all the dirty work again.

In God We Trust

Our national motto is:

In God We Trust

Now, I've always been comfortable with that given our Judeo-Christian historical legacy. But today I learned something that caused me some consternation.

You see, I always bought the "BigLie" that 'In God We Trust became the official U.S. national motto after the passage of an Act of Congress in 1956' which provides some argumentative support for the notion that it was a product of ColdWar politics.

Today I learned that Francis Scott Key made it a specific reference in the final stanza of our National Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner giving it significantly more weight then I previously understood. But I learned something more...

In our darkest hours of our Civil War our national motto was directed to appear on a two-cent coin and repeatedly showed up on coins between 1864 and it's official adoption in 1956.

In God We Trust is our national motto because it was used as such in our darkest hour.

In God We Trust represents more then a random stanza ripped from a forgotten verse of our National Anthem. It represents all that is good in the (R)epublican's heroic crusade to liberate our fellow citizens in bondage from their enslavement by (D)emocrats.

Is it any wonder the
Copperheads fight against this reminder of their historical legacy to this day?

To reject our national motto, and to do so via misrepresentation as an establishment of a national religion, in contrast to it's celebration of our religious freedoms, is to demean the sacrifices made by so many.

Our unique Republic liberated itself from it's Colonial masters and a scant 80 years later fought against that an inherited colonial legacy to liberate our fellows in servitude into citizenship.

Our Republic is an unprecedented historical triumph in the history of mankind. It's actions since it's foundation have only enhanced that marvelous legacy.

God Bless America.
Cross Posted at DANEgerus

These people are nucking futs.

Outright insane. Crazy. Loony. Loco. CooCoo for Cocoa Puffs. And do you want to know what really scares me?

THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO ACTUALLY VOTED THAT CREEPY LITTLE HALF-PINT, SAWN OFF, COMMUNIST IMP TO CONGRESS!

I'm pretty damn sure that there will be another civil war in this country during my lifetime. And it's insane Leftists like Kucinich and the people who elected him that make me believe that. Seriously. Impeaching Cheney? On what charges? For what? I say let them try, let them debate it, and prove to the sane people in this country that the Left can't be trusted with any more authority than hall monitor at a local elementery school.

Anti-War propaganda bombing

The pundits claim that the Iraq War doesn't sell...

In the Valley of Elah

Cost est. $25 million

Domestic Gross : $6,704,576



Rendition

Cost est. $27 million

Domestic Gross : $9,283,593



The Kingdom

Cost est. $70 million

Domestic Gross : $46,844,125

But what Iraq War movies have been released that aren't condescending anti-war/anti-American propaganda?

Here is a template for success for you...

300

Cost est. $65 million

Domestic Gross : $210,614,939

Here is a clue. Men. Men go to war movies... and they like war movies that have positive heroes that are heroic. Then they buy the DVD.

Chicks don't go to war movies. Chicks don't care if those movies, they don't go to, are historically accurate and they won't go even if General Patton has self-loathing reflective moments that displace his entire campaign kicking the krauts across Europe.

Ken Burns? He made a multi-part chick flick and shoved it up our ass on PBS.

Men go to war movies.

Make some.

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

Update via Jonah Goldberg:

'Anti-' doesn't sell

...The Kingdom... ...Its anti-war credentials come from suggesting that the sworn lawmen (and women) investigating the slaughter of families playing softball are no better than the murderers.

...

We've all heard the stories, many true, some apocryphal, of soldiers returning home from Vietnam only to be disrespected and shunned by an ungrateful nation. How many were called war criminals or spat upon is as controversial as it is unknowable. But there's one thing we know our troops never experienced. We never filled the movie theaters during wartime with films calling them war criminals, rapists and, figuratively, spitting on them or on their mission.

More AID to Palestinians = More Terror from Palestinians

MereRhetoric has the charts to illustrate that

More Aid To Palestinians Means More Murders A Year Later

Every time aid increases, homicides increase. Every time it decreases, homicides decrease. There's a not uncompelling theory about how cultures degenerate into corruption and depravity when they have to rely on outsiders to literally feed and clothe them. That explains some of what's going on, but it isn't enough to explain such a strong and consistent correlation.

A lot of the correlation is probably accounted for by the simple fact that all humanitarian assistance is de facto security assistance. More US and EU money for schools and hospitals means that the Palestinians can shift their Saudi and Iranian money towards guns and ammo. Which may help explain why Palestinians are able to kill more people every time they get aid, and why they're forced to kill less people every time it's taken away...

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

OK, any camera nuts out there?

Here's the deal - I'm going to be getting a belated Birthday present for myself - a digital SLR camera. I've been reading reviews, going over my budget, and I'm down to a couple of choices - the Pentax K100D, and the Nikon D40X. There are pros and cons to both of them. I've owned both Pentax and Nikon film SLR cameras in the past, and I've been happy with both of them. I don't have any sentimental favorites. So here are a few questions for anyone who knows the answers:

How much of a difference does 10.2Megapixel make vs. 6.1Megapixel for someone who is not a professional photographer? The Nikon D40X is 10.2MP, and the Pentax is 6.1MP. I've had some work published, but I've never gotten paid for it. It's not what I plan on doing for a living either. I don't see my photos getting blown up and placed on a NYC building. I wouldn't mind getting a photo enlarged to 14X11 or 18X22, but I'm not going to be making any posters.

Does anyone know how sturdy they are? I'm not a gentle guy; I take care of my gear, but I do a lot of traveling (I'm in the military) and any camera I own would have to travel with me. It would not have a cushy lifestyle. Chances are it would end up in the desert for a period of time.

What, if anything, would cause you to purchase one camera over the other?

I welcome any input. This is going to be my Birthday present/Christmas present/Anniversary present all rolled into one, so I'm giving it some thought before I shell out the bucks.

Oh for Pete's sake!

Apparently, there's a moonbat named Kevin Drum who's posted a poll titled "All-Time Wingnuttiest Blog Post"

Say what?

This is why I refuse to bother debating with most Leftists these days. Go read the comments, and you will see most of the Leftist arguments repeated ad nauseam. "You hater! You hateful person! You racist! You sexist!" Blah blah blah blah blah.

The ideology of the political Left is made up of emotion-based attacks, feeeeeeeeeelings, insults, ad hominem attacks, straw-man arguments, and failed ideas that should have been killed decades ago. "Debating" Leftists is like dealing with a two-year old throwing a temper tantrum.

The best argument they can come up with in regards to Kim du Toit is to call him "fat", and make fun of his name.

Childish, juvenile, sniveling little shitheads, the entire lot of them.

As an aside, the posts they have in the poll are some damn good reading, full of thought and completely shredding the Left apart. Which is why the Leftists can't stand them.

I'm Back

And I have mosquito bites in places that I never knew I had before now.

Much expounding will come later.