Memorial Day

I've been trying to come up with a fitting Memorial Day post, and to be honest with you guys, I got bupkis right now.  So many other people have come up with fitting tributes, and pictorial essays, that I look around and think to myself "How can I say anything to match that?"

So let me just be plain and simple, the way I like to be -

I have had excellent leadership in the Army, and I've had horrible leadership.  I've seen selfless service and greedy bastards.  I've spent less time in theater than some, and more time than others.  But we have the best damn military in the world, who does more with less support than anyone could ever dream.  Which might sound trite and cheap when you think about the billions of dollars in the military budget, but we have Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines in over 100 countries around the world right now, building schools, vaccinating kids, teaching people how to farm and how to grow food, setting up water purification sites, acting as deterrents against hostile dictators, rebuilding and strengthening cities, on and on and on and on.  We have Soldiers on six continents full time.  We are spread over the world, and only in a few places are shots actually being fired.

We're not just the world's police force, we're the world's engineering force.  We're the world's construction force too.  We're the world's rescue service.  And we do it better, faster, and cheaper than anyone else.  I'm humbled to be a part of it all.  Grateful as well, because the Army has given me a hell of a lot, starting with the self-discipline I needed when I was a stupid young punk way back when.  But in everything I've accomplished in the military, I did it while standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before me.

There's a Wall of Heros as you enter my building.  It's roped off and lit up, and has the faces of the Soldiers from my unit who have died in combat.  I look at that wall every day, and thank them for what they did and what they gave, so that my wife and I could sit in the comfort of our home here and enjoy life together.  It's a humbling experience to do day after day.  And it's a necessary one, so that the Soldiers and civilians who I work with never forget the sacrifice others made for us.

I won't say "Happy" Memorial Day, because I don't know if cheeriness and happiness is what is required.  So I will simply say to enjoy this day, and remember why it exists.  See you tomorrow.

It ain't the Foxholes that are the problem

One of the biggest strawmen argument I've ever heard when it comes to gays in the military is "I'd be happy to share a foxhole with (name that homosexual)!"  But the foxhole isn't where the problems come in to play.  When you're in a foxhole, you're in combat.  You most likely won't be having sex while the shells are coming down.  No, the problems crop up once you're out of that foxhole and back in the rear.

Once again, does anyone think that the military would force me to room with a female?  "OK Dave, here's your barracks room and here's your room mate, Private Nancy Smith.  Enjoy!"  No, not only would the military not force me to do that, they PROHIBIT that by regulation.

Does anyone think that the military would force me to shower with the females?  "OK Dave, we have one latrine, so just drop trou and get clean.  By the way, that's PFC Shirley Jones in there right now, but she won't mind!"  Hell no I couldn't do that.  In fact, if I got naked and jumped in the female shower, I'd be arrested and charged with violating several different UCMJ articles.

And yet, the very same people who would slap me with sexual harassment charges if I tried to shower with PFC Shirley Jones are demanding that I accept that very same sexual dynamic being forced on me just because it's now someone of the same gender.

It's not about an individual Soldier's fighting skills.  It's not about a desire to serve.  It's about bringing a sexual dynamic into a situation that cannot have sex involved without negative and desultory effects.  If you want proof of sex being a negative influence in theater, all you have to do is look at what Gen Cucolo faced when he tried to enforce UCMJ punishment on Soldiers who either got pregnant, or got another Soldier pregnant while in Iraq.  This wasn't just a joke.  When a Soldier gets knocked up, they have to go back home, which means that the unit is either one Soldier down, or they have to pull someone from home station and cross level them into the unit.  That's not as easy as it sounds, and it puts unnecessary strain on the unit and the new Soldier, disrupting operations and causing resentment among other Soldiers who don't have the option of getting pregnant and going home to their family.

And let me tell you, if you want to see a unit go from decent headspace to negative headspace in less than a week, you just tell them that PFC Martha Johnson is preggers and getting to go home, but the rest of them have to stay in country.  It just does WONDERS for the moral of the unit!

Soldiers getting pregnant in theater is a problem across many levels, and this General was trying to deal with a few of the more harmful side effects.  But because of the political correct ideology that has infested the military, this Commanding General can't even punish Soldiers who violate General Order #1 and get knocked up.  You think that allowing homosexual Soldiers won't be a problem?  Sure, let's just add ANOTHER sexual dynamic into a mix that is already strained.  And the first time some guy cops a feel in the shower and gets his ass beaten like a drum, the lawsuits start flying.  The accusations of "EEEEK!  EEEEEK!  HATE CRIME!  HATE CRIME!" start flying around.  Even MORE politically correct bullshit infects the Army, like a tapeworm that keeps on growing.  No, scratch that, it's not a tapeworm, because you can shit out a tapeworm.  Heartworm.  Infecting the organ that keeps you moving and alive, eventually killing you as you stagger around coughing and wondering why you can't seem to breathe anymore.

Not one single person pushing for allowing open homosexuality in the military has bothered to answer any of the concerns people have brought up.  In fact, the people bringing up the concerns have been ignored, shouted down, silenced, insulted, called names, and pushed aside.  That tells me that the people pushing for repealing DADT know about the problems it will cause, but they don't care.  They'd rather push their ideology on the military come hell or high water, and when shit starts to fall apart they'll most likely blame the military for it because it's easy to blame people who can't respond or act.  It's easy to blame people who have to keep their mouth shut.

If you think that repealing DADT is a good thing, you are wrong.  Plain and simple.  The Army is not a social program.  We're not a civilian workplace.  We cannot operate under the same rules and principals of the civilian world, because we do not operate in a civilian environment.  And I really, really wish to hell that people would remember that before they try to push the next social experiment on us.

A timeline

Of Obama's incompetence in responding to the oil spill.  A whole lotta golf.  A whole lotta grip-n-grin going on.  A whole lotta nothing.

Obama is unfit to be president, and this latest episode only proves it.  He is, however, excellent about lying about his response.

Click it or Ticket

Have you seen these commercials?  It's pink citations flying down the road and attacking people who don't wear their seatbelts, with an ominous voice-over saying "OFFICERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ARE WRITING TICKETS!  IF YOU DON'T WEAR YOUR SEATBELT, YOU COULD PAY A FINE!"

Now, aside from the fact that I have huge problems with the government legislating all this, here's what struck me about it as I was driving home tomorrow.  The Obama administration obviously cannot handle a state enforcing immigration laws.  Yet they have no problem with enforcing a nationwide law that interferes in a private citizen's life.

Maybe it's because interfering in a private citizen's life brings in cash, whereas enforcing immigration laws costs money.

Whew

Sorry 'bout that lack of free ice cream there, folks.  I'm back now, for a few days anyways.  Like I said, crazy time.

Busy times are here again

Light posting from here on out, folks.  Gonna be a little while.

Links

So Obama gave a speech at West Point.  As the Commander in Chief, it's rather expected that you address the next batch of officers who will be fighting your wars.

But damn.

Just.....  damn.

Let me just get this out front, mmkay?  Barack Hussein Obama is a gutless, spineless, nutless little fucking bitch, and the fact that America made him the Commander in Chief literally makes me want to renounce my citizenship in this country.  The only thing that keeps me from doing such is the knowledge that at some point, Barack Hussein Obama will no longer be president, although the country he leaves behind will be damaged beyond our ability to repair it, and the most we have to look forward to is a downward spiral into irrelevance, poverty, weakness, socialist slavery, and finally death.  But I'm going to fight it every step of the way, because it's the only right thing to do.  But for all the people who voted for that worthless fucking sack of communist shit, fuck you.  Fuck the horse you rode it on, fuck the goat who spawned it, and fuck the mountain it fed on.  You are not my countrymen.  You're nothing more than brainless, mindless fucking zombiefied slaves who have clapped the chains on your own necks willingly, because you're too infantile and too weak to take responsibility for yourself, and thus have abdicated that responsibility and the freedoms that accompany it to the power of the ever-increasing government.

Is that clear enough?

Obama's limp-dick response to North Korea

Is going to hurt us in South Korea.  You think the Arabs are the only ones who give a shit about the strong horse vs. the weak horse?  No.  The Korean culture is very huge on respect and saving face, and being forced to do nothing even though they have solid proof that the Norks sank their ship is going to eat them alive from the inside out.  But the Obama administration, once again, is protecting a communist dictator at the expense of our allies.

And it's going to hurt us.  You think some of those South Korean rioters who want the US out are going to like us more now?  Hell no.  And many of the Koreans who regard the USA with something akin to friendship are going to be re-evaluating their assessment of America when America is preventing them from responding to a deliberate act of war by the Norks.

I don't know if I've said this before, but it needs to be said now - I don't know if we will be able to recover from the diplomatic damage that Obama is doing.  This is just another example of that damage.

Holy ...... just damn

Frankie Cee sent this YouTube of the dumbest caller in the world on the Michael Savage show.

She votes.

I really, really hope this caller was a joke.  But I've lived in liberal meccas before.  I've debated liberals.  This is what they sound like.  Thanks for the spike in BP there, Frankie.

Free Day

I actually have a free day today.  All mine.  I have to pack some for an upcoming trip, but other than that, I don't have to do anything I don't want to do.

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

I LOLed.

I truly did.  The Smoke Grenades fit perfectly in the cupholders!

I doubt we'll see that model over here though.  US auto companies like to build totally kick ass cars, trucks and SUV's, and then only sell them overseas.

Speechless

I guess the Democrat American Communist Party isn't content with showing it's anti-Americanism through legislation - they have to bring in the leader of our corrupt, crime-ridden, drug cartel controlled southern neighbor and then applaud him while he lambasts Arizona for writing a law to deal with criminals coming from said neighbor.

What.

The.

FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?!

Hey GOP!  Hey RNC?  You have the video!  You have the actions of the Donks on tape!  ARE YOU GOING TO USE IT?!?!?!

Ten bucks says no.  The nutless, gutless, spineless pukes.  Gah.  I'm so pissed at the traitorous pieces of shit that I can barely type.

Chilling

I guess the worthless corrupt shitweasels in Congress don't like the common rabble talking about them.

The same sloppy legislative writing that created so many unintended consequences in ObamaCare also plagues the DISCLOSE Act, the effort in Congress to tighten spending rules in the wake of the Citizens United decision — and that’s the generous take on the situation.  Reason’s Bradley Smith and Jeff Patch warn that the perhaps-unintended consequences of legislative language will allow the FEC to regulate political speech online.  The fact that media entities like the New York Times have specific exemptions built into the bill makes the intent, or lack thereof, rather murky:

I don't give a damn what their intentions are - the fact that Congress would even think to write a bill like this means that every bastard who is attached to it, either through sponsoring for voting "aye", needs to be impeached.

And then have the constitution tattooed backwards on their forehead, with the 1st Amendment in bold letters, so that they can read it every day.

Hammer your Congresscritter

This is why a Conservative win in 2010 is so important - we have got to repeal Obamacare before it wrecks this country's health care system, as it's promising to do.

The end result of the consolidation that will follow ObamaCare will be increased bureaucracies and fewer choices.  The mandate burden will mean fewer independent clinics and providers, thanks to the increased start-up costs.  Doctors will look for the economies-of-scale approach and join a decreasing number of larger networks.  Insurers will affiliate themselves with fewer providers and networks as they pare down their offerings, which will already be constrained by the mandates for minimum coverage.  The so-called “Cadillac tax” will eliminate the high-end policies now offered as insurers attempt to avoid the ruinous taxes and fees imposed on those plans.

I hope you enjoyed your health care while you had it.  Follow the link to read about how doctors in Texas are refusing to deal with Medicare because of the costs.  If Obamacare continues, I think you'll begin to see a whole host of doctors that refuse to deal with the government at all, and do cash-only businesses so as to avoid all the regulation and paperwork that goes with insurance and government mandates.

Hell, that might be the only way to get health care in the future.

Liar liar pants on fire

Democrat Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut AG, claims he served in Viet Nam.  Only problem?  He didn't.  I could go on about how this cockholster needs to be tied naked to a fire ant hill, but really....  just look at the guy.  Carrying around that face is punishment enough.  He's a gigantic penis with ears.

Who is Micheal Posner

Michelle Malkin did some digging on the braindead fucktard who apologized to China for American civil rights.  If this is the example of the fine modern leadership of the State Department, then all I can say is that nothing has changed in the past decade at Foggy Bottom.  It's still a cesspool of leftist shitheads.

Yay.

Oh, just great

The Obama Administration has gone and started apologizing to the frikkin' CHINESE for us being American.  Is there any dictator that this group of shitstains won't capitulate to?

[Assistant Secretary of State Michael] Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its [sic] own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person's immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

Hey, I have an idea - why don't we wait until the Chinese no longer force women to have abortions before we start apologizing for the human and civil rights we have in America!  Just unbelieveable!  What's next? Are we going to apologize to Iran for the way we treat women in this country?

Open Carry Picnic

I managed to haul my ass off the couch yesterday and head out to the La Crosse County Open Carry Picnic.  Chicken, folks, and firearms.  It was fairly low key - no hotheads, no idiots, just people out enjoying the sunshine and having lunch.  I'd say there were 150-200 folks there.  Roughly three-quarters of them were open carrying.  I didn't take too many pictures, mainly because I was just enjoying myself and having a good time.  I did however take a picture of a pistol grip that I might have to find for my 1911.

Click to enlarge.  Ye Olde Gadsden flag on snakeskin-colored pistol grips.  Davey Like!  There are plenty of other pictures at the link if you want to go check them out.

Now, compare this event to this poor bastard who got arrested for "disorderly conduct" because he was shopping while open carrying.  Please note - Wisconsin is no-issue; no concealed carry allowed what so ever.  However, the state supreme court says that citizens have a right to carry arms, which means you open carry or nothing.  So this guy gets arrested for doing something completely legal.  THAT is why events like this are so important.  Consider it a mass demonstration, if you will.  A little notice that we are here, we are law abiding, and we will exercise our rights.

Your humble narrator.  I might make that my profile picture.

Anyone know what this is?

Got someone who emailed this to me, asking if I knew anything about it.  Called it a "snake stopper".  I've never seen anything like it, but me being a northern boy, we don't have much call for snake stoppers.  The only real snakes around my parents house are garter snakes, and the worst they do is poo on you if you handle them too rough.

Looks wicked though, doesn't it?  I've got to assume that whatever it was meant to catch, it wasn't supposed to live.

Oh Sanctissima

Another Latin Hymn that's sadly missing from most Catholic masses.  I don't know if I'll make it to mass today, as I'm not certain I'm well enough to be around other folks in confined spaces.  So this will have to do for church music today.