What We Pay For A Gallon of Regular Gasoline

*****UPDATE***** Adam in the comments points out that I don't explain the profits. Sorry. i do that a lot, start a conversation in the middle. I read the stuff at the link and then only put up one graphic. So here is the other

Energy Information Administration -

7%.

7%

Can we have no more asshattery about obscene oil company profits now?

Princess Crabby sneaks Down To Foxwoods

So Friday Jen & I sneak down to Foxwoods on someone else's dime. A room from my boss. Jen's boss covered the facials in the Grand Salon. A special guest appearance by the Air Force covered dinner. Then nothing but lounging...........by the pool.........on the balcony.......in the jacuzzi........in the steam room, my hair loaded with fabulous rosemary mint hair conditioner.

But everywhere I go there's something.

I was headed down the hall to the sauna behind two of the spa employees. They joined two more who were already standing at the door of the sauna. All four were young girls, twenty years old or so.

"Maybe you should shut it off."

"What if someone wants to use it?"

They turn and look at me. "Were you going to use the sauna?"

"Well" I smiled. "Not if you broke it." No smiles in return.

"No, there a girl in there. She's passed out."

I look and indeed there is a girl, face up on the sauna bench, oblivious to the open door, cooling temperature, or the five people observing her.

"Did you call someone?" I ask as I walk past them into the sauna. They respond in the affirmative, they have contacted their supervisor. I felt for a pulse and told the girl who followed me in to get one of the iced face clothes that they keep in a bucket just outside the door. She's breathing fine and is indeed, passed out. I tap her cheeks, call to her and rub the iced cloth on her arms and dab her face. Her eyes flutter. "That's it honey, open your eyes." They flutter again. The girl on the bench mumbles that she's fine. I tell her of course she is, now sit up. She tries too quickly and I catch her coming back down. We get her to a sitting position and I hear a sigh of relief from one of the young girls behind me. Sleeping Beuaty's head goes back against the wall and the eyes close again. "I'm fine." I answer as I rub her back and urge her forward and up "You'll be much more confortable out in a nice chair, come on." She asks for her shoes and the girls tell her that they are in her locker. One girl says "Your friend is waiting for you". I think, not a very good friend since she's no where in sight. Then I realize it must be a man. Of course men aren't allowed in the ladies spa. So that means she's been in here long enough for some guy to realize it's been too long and then decide it's been so long that he's willing to go summon an employee. Then even longer while these girls look for her, find her, call for each other to come and stand at the door - lol- calling her name.

Wow - that's a long time to be in the sauna.

So, I get her up and that breaks the freeze with the staff. The move forward, taking her arms, steadying her and helping her down the hall. One takes her locker key and get her stuff.

The last girl holding the door looks shaky and thanks me. The others turn and thank me over their shoulders. I laugh and tell them they just needed someone's mother to come along.

I dump the wet cloth and the towels from the sauna for fresh ones for me. My turn. When I come out Jen is there.

"What took you so long, I thought you passed out in there!'

"Not me, someone else."

I tell her the story. She shakes her head. It's always something with me, she has ceased to be surprised.

Supreme Court Fumble

Kat & John at the Castle save me the trouble.

The Gitmo Decision.

Guantanamo No Mo'?

Kudos to Obama's Political Strategist

On the matter of Obama's birth certificate - Well played, David Plouffe, well played!

What is the result of Obama holding his birth certificate high above his head while the press and the blogosphere jumped and yelped for it? One of three things, or a combination of them.

1. Misdirection - Something else slipped by us all while we were looking in the wrong direction.

2. Field dressing - Obama stopped some of the bleeding on the mini-scandals erupting around him. The Tony Rezko conviction. The VP vetting committee resignations, Eric Holder, Johnson. The thought that there was something juicy in that birth certificate was far more alluring than mortgage and finance scandals.

3. Innoculation - The next time there is an allegation that BHO is hiding something, people will yawn. They will say "Hey, you got us all spooled up about the birth certificate and there was nothing there. Where's the clicker? Is the game on? Where's my beer?"

Rick Covers All Bases

Motorcycle Refresher Required for Redeploying Infantry TroopsBy Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service
FORT STEWART, Ga., June 12, 2008 – Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch lost too many soldiers during the 3rd Infantry Division’s third and longest deployment to Iraq. But now that most of the division is finally home, Lynch told the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday he’s not willing to take a single additional casualty to a motorcycle accident.

“I refuse to think that a soldier could deploy to combat for 15 months, then come home and get killed on a motorcycle,” Lynch said during Navy Adm. Mike Mullen’s visit here yesterday.

So Lynch, an avid motorcyclist who parks his prized Harley-Davidson in front of the division headquarters, requires every single soldier under his command who rides a motorcycle to take an hour-and-a-half refresher course before hitting the road on two wheels.

“Nobody’s touching their motorcycle until they go through the refresher course,” Lynch said.

The requirement makes good sense as troops reintegrate into the garrison environment after a tough deployment as part of the surge force, he said.

Lynch, who’s been cycling for 30 years, took the refresher course himself during his first day back to Fort Stewart earlier this month.

The course includes a spin at the post’s newly acquired motorcycle simulator -- the only one of its kind, not just in the United States, but in North America, Jim McCullough, installation safety director, told Mullen yesterday.

“It’s pretty high-speed,” Col. Todd Buchs, Fort Stewart’s garrison commander, said of the full-sized device that looks like it belongs in either an arcade or amusement park. “It lets soldiers get refresher training to sharpen up those perishable skills they may have lost while they were gone before they hit the road again.”

At $143,000, Lynch said, the simulator is worth every penny.

“We don’t know how many lives we’ve saved, but we know it’s had an impact,” Buchs said.

Three division soldiers have been in motorcycle accidents since the division began redeploying in late March. In two of the three accidents, the motorist -- not the soldier -- was at fault, Buchs said.

Motorcycling has become increasingly popular Armywide, particularly in light of high gas prices. Officials report more than 33,000 motorcycles currently registered on Army posts.

At Fort Stewart, soldiers are “buying them left and right” now that they’re home from combat, Buchs said. All must undergo mandatory training offered through the post safety office in coordination with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

Post officials recognize they’re trying to buck an alarming trend. Twenty soldiers were killed in motorcycle accidents during the first six months of fiscal 2008 alone, according to Army Combat Readiness Center data. That’s more than twice the number killed during the same period last year, officials said.

Last year, the Defense Department lost nearly 100 servicemembers in motorcycle accidents.

These numbers reflect a nationwide upward trend. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics show motorcycle fatalities have more than doubled during the last 10 years nationwide.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation reports that more than half of all motorcycle accidents involve another vehicle, and more often than not, the motorcyclist is not at fault.

Lynch said he’s going the extra mile to help protect his soldiers, particularly when they’re first back from a deployment. He requires all returning soldiers to wait 48 hours before driving a car and limits them to within 100 miles of Fort Stewart for a short period after that as they readjust.

“These soldiers have been through a lot and achieved a lot, but now they’re home,” he said. “And after deploying to combat for 15 months, I don’t want to lose them in an accident at home.”
*****************************************************
Rick is a great leader who sees the big picture. Everything about his soldiers is important all the time.

ConcreteBob sent me the link. If he didn't, I'm sure someone else would have. Since my huge crush on "soon-to-be-Lt.-General-Rick-Lynch" is well known in the Milblog world people sent me links. LOL My own personal Google alert. But Bob is one of the funnier ones. On another occasion where Rick did something good (there are so many this particular one escapes me) Bob called. "Your boy did good." I heistated, not knowing what he meant. After all Bob has met Tommy, so he literally knows one of my boys. But I couldn't think of anything Tommy had done recently that would merit that comment. "My boy?" I asked. "Yeah, your boy Rick Lynch!" ROMFLMAO! Oh, right my boy. Anyway.........kudos to "my boy" Rick. As always, good idea and good execution.

I Know It's Wrong and I Don't Care

I know it's wrong to enjoy Ann Coulter as she viciously attacks liberals and I don't care.
I know it's wrong to agree when she is crude as she savages their heroes from Clinton to Carter and I don't care.
She's overblown.............so am I.
She exaggerates to prove a point.........so do I.

I love Ann Coulter.

Bush's America: 100 Percent Al-Qaida Free Since 2001

In a conversation recently, I mentioned as an aside what a great president George Bush has been and my friend was surprised. I was surprised that he was surprised.

I generally don't write columns about the manifestly obvious, but, yes, the man responsible for keeping Americans safe from another terrorist attack on American soil for nearly seven years now will go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents.

Produce one person who believed, on Sept. 12, 2001, that there would not be another attack for seven years, and I'll consider downgrading Bush from "Great" to "Really Good."

Merely taking out Saddam Hussein and his winsome sons Uday and Qusay (Hussein family slogan: "We're the Rape Room People!") constitutes a greater humanitarian accomplishment than anything Bill Clinton ever did -- and I'm including remembering Monica's name on the sixth sexual encounter.

But unlike liberals, who are so anxious to send American troops to Rwanda or Darfur, Republicans oppose deploying U.S. troops for purely humanitarian purposes. We invaded Iraq to protect America.

It is unquestionable that Bush has made this country safe by keeping Islamic lunatics pinned down fighting our troops in Iraq. In the past few years, our brave troops have killed more than 20,000 al-Qaida and other Islamic militants in Iraq alone. That's 20,000 terrorists who will never board a plane headed for JFK -- or a landmark building, for that matter.

We are, in fact, fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them at, say, the corner of 72nd and Columbus in Manhattan -- the mere mention of which never fails to enrage liberals, which is why you should say it as often as possible.

The Iraq war has been a stunning success. The Iraqi army is "standing up" (as they say), fat Muqtada al-Sadr --the Dr. Phil of Islamofascist radicalism -- has waddled off in retreat to Iran, and Sadr City and Basra are no longer war zones. Our servicemen must be baffled by the constant nay-saying coming from their own country.

The Iraqis have a democracy -- a miracle on the order of flush toilets in that godforsaken region of the world. Despite its newness, Iraq's democracy appears to be no more dysfunctional than one that would condemn a man who has kept the nation safe for seven years while deifying a man who has accomplished absolutely nothing in his entire life except to give speeches about "change."

(Guess what Bill Clinton's campaign theme was in 1992? You are wrong if you guessed: "bringing dignity back to the White House." It was "change." In January 1992, James Carville told Steve Daley of The Chicago Tribune that it had gotten to the point that the press was complaining about Clinton's "constant talk of change.")

Monthly casualties in Iraq now come in slightly lower than a weekend with Anna Nicole Smith. According to a CNN report last week, for the entire month of May, there were only 19 troop deaths in Iraq. (Last year, five people on average were shot every day in Chicago.) With Iraqi deaths at an all-time low, Iraq is safer than Detroit -- although the Middle Eastern food is still better in Detroit.

Al-Qaida is virtually destroyed, surprising even the CIA. Two weeks ago, The Washington Post reported: "Less than a year after his agency warned of new threats from a resurgent al-Qaida, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden now portrays the terrorist movement as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world, including in its presumed haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border."

It's almost as if there's been some sort of "surge" going on, as strange as that sounds.
Just this week, The New York Times reported that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups in Southeast Asia have all but disappeared, starved of money and support. The U.S. and Australia have been working closely with the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, sending them counterterrorism equipment and personnel.

But no one notices when 9/11 doesn't happen. Indeed, if we had somehow stopped the 9/11 attack, we'd all be watching Mohammed Atta being interviewed on MSNBC, explaining his lawsuit against the Bush administration. Maureen Dowd would be writing columns describing Khalid Sheik Mohammed as a "wannabe" terrorist being treated like Genghis Khan by an excitable Bush administration.

We begin to forget what it was like to turn on the TV, see a tornado, a car chase or another Pamela Anderson marriage and think: Good -- another day without a terrorist attack.
But liberals have only blind hatred for Bush -- and for those brute American interrogators who do not supply extra helpings of béarnaise sauce to the little darlings at Guantanamo with sufficient alacrity.

The sheer repetition of lies about Bush is wearing people down. There is not a liberal in this country worthy of kissing Bush's rear end, but the weakest members of the herd run from Bush. Compared to the lickspittles denying and attacking him, Bush is a moral giant -- if that's not damning with faint praise. John McCain should be so lucky as to be running for Bush's third term. Then he might have a chance.

"...a life well lived, but cut too short."

Go over to the Castle

Fair winds and a following sea, Sailor and Scouts

The Armorer pays tribute to Chief Petty Officer Dave Eberhart and the four Boy Scouts lost in the Iowa tornado last night.

So, I'm assuming that Josh, Sam, Ben, and Aaron have all pitched a tent together in the woods around Fiddler's Green, and that Chief Eberhart was there to greet them.

Medgar Evers 1925-1963

Medgar Evers was shot on this day (actually later this evening) 45 years ago.

From the Arlington National Cemetery website:

Medgar Wiley Evers was born at Decauter, Mississippi, on July 2, 1925.
He served in the United States Army during World War II, but was best know as a prominent civil rights leader in his home state.
He was shot and killed outside his home at Jackson, Mississippi, on the evening of June 12, 1963 and was buried in Section 36 of Arlington National Cemetery one week later.
His story is portrayed in the motion picture, "The Ghosts of Mississippi."

Evers joined the Army in 1943 and served at Normandy. He was honorably discharged at the rank of Sgt. in 1945. Then he went on to fight another war in the south until his death in 1963.

Could John Kerry Be A Bigger Assclown?

From the NYT:
Democrats Criticize McCain on Strategy in Iraq

In an interview on the NBC “Today” show, Mr. McCain was asked whether, if the troop escalation he had long advocated in Iraq was working, he had “a better estimate of when American forces can come home.”

“No, but that’s not too important,” Mr. McCain replied. He then went on to say, as he has many times, that the most important goal is reducing casualties in Iraq, and that American troops were still in South Korea, Japan and Germany without any fear of harm.
*******************************
So now we jump down to my jackass junior Senator.

“It is unbelievably out of touch with the needs and concerns of Americans, particularly of the families of the troops that are over there,” Mr. Kerry said. “To them it is the most important thing in the world.”

No, Mr. Kerry, having them home quickly isn't our biggest concern. Having them stay alive is our biggest concern.

Why don't you survey the military families, hell why don't you survey anyone's family......

Ask them this:
Do you want you loved one home on time if it means others die?

624787

Some People Don't Know How Lucky They Are!

So, you know the house is constantly full of smelly, stinky boys, right? Playing video games, using every towel, dish and glass in the house, leaving takeout wrappers everywhere. The whole nine. One might look upon this and say "What a load of useless carbon based lifeforms!"

Hehehe......not completely.

Last night I left the gym a little after midnight. I stopped at the intersection to watch a construction project at the mall. They are building a bridge over the entryway. It's all lit up and I find it interesting. As you can imagine the industrial park is fairly empty at the hour especially with the mall entrance closed for the contruction.

I saw one vehicle, a bronco-kinda-thing. He wizzed by me at a high rate of speed from left to right and on he went. After a moment I turned right and followed in his direction. As I approached the light, the bronco was stopped..............at the green light up ahead. I approached at a reasonable speed, expecting him to move. He didn't. He put on his left turn signal, but didn't move. He shut off the turn signal. So I passed him on his left.

No harm, no foul. I wasn't close, this road is new and straight and wide with a slight elevation. I watched him in my rear view mirror and as I approached the next light, he began to move. Fast. He came flying up behind me. He didn't turn onto the highway. He didn't pull into the gas station. He didn't turn right at the light I was now going through. He followed me to the left.

Now he is right on my bumper. As I round the next curve, I call Frankie.

"Hey, Mum, what up?"

"Where are you?"

"At the crib. Why?" Did I mention my son is not a famous rap star, but he talks the talk? Sometimes they have me doing it too. I explain my situation and that I might just be paranoid, but I believe he is following me. He asks for my specific location and ETA. We hang up.

I catch the next light, but not the one after. It's two lanes, he pulls up beside me. My windows are down, so is his.

"Hey, what is your motherfuckin' problem?"

I roll through the red light. A cop might be nice about now. But then I start to giggle. A cop might be lucky for him! I keep going, he's still on my bumper.

I make the turn into the Lane off of the main road. This is the only road in and out of my neighborhood. My neighborhood is clearly different from the rest of the town in many ways. Cut off by the railroad bridge. A thin finger of land between the ocean and the river. It's history as a summer community kept it from meshing with the town. So when you say where you're from to the other residents it defintely conjures an image. For some, fun in the sun.....for others...something else. During the transition from summer community to winter community, from life with septic tanks to life with town sewerage.....things got a little rough.

Maybe my tailgater was thinking that. Maybe he got a phone call. Maybe he saw another target of opportunity. Who knows, but whatever it was he banged a what started out as a u-turn and turned into a sloppy 3-point turn as soon as we turned into the Lane. LOL

I cross the railroad bridge and go to my house, a half a mile beyond. I turn the last corner and see my house.

ROFLMAO!!!!

Cars are pulling up, disgorging boys. Frankie and Bill are standing in the front yard.

I pull up - alone. I tell them where he turned away. They laugh. Cars load back up.

If only that guy knew how lucky he was! He would buy a lottery ticket.

I am not advocating violence. But I think I have to bring home pizza tonight.

I Have The Best Secret Stash of Sailors Eva!!

Princess Crabby has a secret stash of Sailors know as the Navy Coterie. Their functions are outlined here.

So this past couple of days, I have needed them and they have come through magnificantly!

Their advice for my summer project has been invaluable. I will be able to discuss it in more detail in about six weeks, but for now I just had to put a big Bravo Zulu out here.

P.S. I would also like to thank Fishmugger (Castle commenter) for representing the Air Force in this matter.

Stella Comments Three Posts Down

Stella stops by once in a while and even though we have very different outlooks on life and politics.....she is reasonable and literate.

The post was a link to one of the Phibian's hellish posts on the conditions on the ground in Africa. In particular about the black market in albino skin and body parts. Good God! Just to type those words pains me.

Stella's comment is in black, my responses are in red -
Bostonmaggie. This is beyond politics. I am, like you, horrified. I thank you, but you leave me speechless.

Then again, I firmly believe that Abu Ghrab and Guantanamo these are two things that could not more clearly be apples and oranges - Abu Ghraib was an aberration. Yes, soldiers perpetrated these crimes, but who turned them in? Soldiers. Who prosecuted them? Soldiers. When someone in our society does something wrong, we do something about it. 99% of the military is made up of decent, honorable, men & women. They are more upset than you over Abu Ghraib. As far as Gitmo.....a) those prisoners are by and large treated better than any other prisoners in 99% of the world. b) Where would you have us put people who try & sometimes succeed in killing Americans? c) We need that information being obtained in Gitmo. Our President's foremost responsibility is to "provide for the common defense". That's what's happening when we interrogate terrorists. undermine the goals of Western Civilization. Again I disagree, we can not be undermined by a few backwoods hicks from West Virginia hazing prisoners or bad press out of Gitmo. Does it hurt? Yes. Does it undermine Western Civilization. No. Also, in my opinion if anyone undermines us, it's the main stream media and the circus they must constantly perpetuate to keep their readers entertained. The other day I participated in a Department of Defense roundtable. The speaker, Col. McGrath told us about building a military hospital in Kandahar and training Afghan police. Did you hear about that in the MSM? No. Why? Well to quote my friend from Southie, Col. McGrath it's "nothing really too sexy". No, not too sexy, unlike made up stories about soldiers urinating on Korans, or Korans in toilets. Stories that are debunked later....after their damage is done. So instead Col. McGrath is stuck with having the likes of me to push his good news with my tiny nonsensical blog. THAT undermines Western Civilization. The thousands of Iraqi children who died for no reason is a disgrace, also. We have not killed thousands of Iraqi children. AQ in Iraq, the Mahdi army, insurgents......people who place no value on human life, much less special value on innocent life killed those children. Our military takes extraordinary measures to avoid collateral damage. More than any other time in the history of mankind. We have to recognize that there are good people and fanatics in all cultures. Sorry, no sale. I can't take an Islamic fanatic who is suicide bomber, a Congolese witch doctor trading in human flesh, and some West Virginian inbreeds who put underwear on someones head and say "Oh well, there are fanatics in every culture." Abu Ghraib was not good. It was bad. It was handled. But comparing it to the others is like comparing a papercut and a sucking chest wound.

I am neither ignorant of nor embrace evil just because I am a liberal. No, you, Stella as a person, you are not ignorant of evil. But throwing in Abu Ghraib tells me that we are in very different places on our views of evil. We are a great culture in many ways, but that doesn't mean we don't have room for improvement. No where in the posts do either Salamander or myself try to say we are perfect.

A president who jokes about not finding WMDs about our soldiers out there dying for no reason I can't even come up with something here. Is he supposed to sit in a dark room and cry all day? Did Truman get to make jokes? Wasn't their a famous pic of Clinton laughing at Ron Brown's funeral. I mean, for Pete's sake, the guy's just human. and cut Veterans' benefits six years in a row, is clearly ignorant and/or evil. My source is solid: the federal budget. I must be missing something here because the FY '06 budget proposed a 2.7% increase, FY '08 proposed a 9% increase, and the FY '09, another increase. I could look for more, but I think they'll reflect the same answer. Soldiers who put their lives on the line deserve all the benefits we can offer in thanks. Of course they do and as much as some want to believe that, "W" knows that better than anyone. Making a joke doesn't change that. Most people I know who have deployed in support of OIF and OEF thought it was a funny joke.

I reject the Phibian comment about, "Self centered, narcissistic female leaders" in the Navy. Many male militaryr leaders are also self-centered and narcissistic. I find the statement misogynistic. If you delete the word "female," then we move into misanthropy, which is seems a more appropriate description for humanity as a whole.

But that's another post... a post I didn't read.

This liberal likes visiting you and learning a perspective that differs from mine. Your posts make me think and I firmly believe that to heal this nation, conservatives, moderates, and liberals need to communicate without rancor. Your visits are welcome.

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. ~~Thomas Paine LOL, this is the best one yet, Stella! That's what we are doing over the ME - securing everyone. Do you read Barnett? The answer is to pull more people out of the Gap and into the Core. That's what we are doing in Iraq. Did we do it perfectly? No. Could it have been done better? Sure. But we are doing it and the world is better for it. Paine is to be read, and contemplated. Then you have to fit him into the big picture. You need to temper his radical aspect with Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and others.

"Beyond The Call Of Duty" Follow-up

In this post I wrote about the Memorial Day weekend event hosted by the USS Midway Museum. On Saturday, May 24 there was a black tie dinner honoring seven living World War II era Medal of Honor recipients. “Beyond the Call of Duty” was a joint effort of the USS Midway Museum and The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.


Here are some pics that Scott McGaugh of the Midway Museum was kind enough to forward to me.

BZ to Scott and everyone at the Midway Museum and the National World War II Museum on pulling together this event.

********************************

Scott also has another surprise up his sleeve.

See the Declaration of Independence on the USS Midway! One-Day exhibit of an original copy from 1776 on July 4, day and night!!!

An original copy of the Declaration of Independence is coming to the USS midway courtesy of the Cricket Wireless Declaration Road Trip 2008, and Declare Yourself. It will be on display during the day and again that night during " A Celebration of America".

Together with our exclusive radio partner, Magic 92.5, Midway will be host to this unique opportunity, coupled with great entertainment and an emotional salute to veterans prior to the Big Bay Fireworks Show. Regular admission applies during the day and limited tickets for the night of July 4 go on sale at 9 a.m. on June 12. They will be $10 for adults and $5 for children at the museum ticket booth and at www.midway.org.

Our veteran salute will be with in concert with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America www.iava.org.

Don't miss this opportunity to show your family a copy of the Declaration that was created on evening of July 4, 1776! It is owned by television producer Norman Lear who has developed a multimedia exhibit to encourage young people to register to vote and participate in the democratic process.

Dude, Where's my Teleprompter?

The Horror of This Is Breathtaking

The Phibian is trying to make us look beyond our comfort zone at some things. This is beyond horrific.

But the killings go on. They have even spread to neighboring Kenya, where an albino woman was hacked to death in late May, with her eyes, tongue and breasts gouged out. Advocates for albinos have also said that witch doctors are selling albino skin in Congo.

The young are often the targets. In early May, Vumilia Makoye, 17, was eating dinner with her family in their hut in western Tanzania when two men showed up with long knives.

Vumilia was like many other Africans with albinism. She had dropped out of school because of severe near-sightedness, a common problem for albinos, whose eyes develop abnormally and who often have to hold books or cellphones just inches away to see them. She could not find a job because no one would hire her. She sold peanuts in the market, making $2 a week while her delicate skin was seared by the sun.

When Vumilia's mother, Jeme, saw the men with knives, she tried to barricade the door of their hut. But the men overpowered her and burst in."They cut my daughter quickly," she said, making hacking motions with her hands.

The men sawed off Vumilia's legs above the knee and ran away with the stumps. Vumilia died.

Those who hate Western Civilization in 2008 advertise one of two things; their ignorance or their embrace of evil. Full stop. Western Civilization is not perfect - but we left this stuff behind 1,000 years ago or more.

Those poor people. There are good people in Sub-Saharan Africa, but you have to appreciate the hill they have to climb. Horror show.
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The emphasis placed on the second to last paragraph placed on the second to last paragraph is mine. I am so sick and tired of the multi-cultis trying to explain that we are the problem. Read this and tell me that the West is the problem.

Bastid!

So, some smartass..........Fishmugger, a Castle commenter, decided I needed to read "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten".

You see he read this post and I was trying to explain that it didn't mean I was nice. It simply was another example of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was yet another incident where I was forced by fate to do something good. It doesn't mean I'm good.

Still he argued. He said that I needed to get this book and read the essay about "The Mermaid" and then look in the mirror.

Then he said it would make me a better person.

I don't want to be a better person.

He kept at it, and being more gracious than I, he sent it to me.

So fine, I'll read it.

So I skipped right to "The Mermaid"............ I'm still thinking about it.

Anyway, before Fishmugger sent his nifty, new "reconsidered, revised & expanded" version, I had decided to see what this was about and secretly went out on Ebay and bid on a couple of copies. Figured I had to win one of them. Well, I won two, lol. So now I have three copies of this book. But they are all slightly different. One is a worn paperback that I tossed it in my gym bag. They are little essays so it's fine for the bike or one of the leg machines.

So tonight, I am at the gym. It's been a long, hot day. I pull out the book and I am reading from machine to machine.

Then I get to the essay about the Russian soldier. This older, worn paperback doesn't have titles like the new one. It's the story of Nicolai Pestretsov.

THE RUSSIANS ARE A ROTTEN LOT, immoral, aggressive, ruthless, coarse, and generally evil. They are responsible for most of the troubles in this world. They're not like us.

That's pretty much the summary of the daily news about the Russians. But sometimes something slips through the net of prejudice, some small bit of a sign that is so clean and true and real that it wedges open the rusting Iron Curtain long enough for us to see not an enemy but fellow travelers, joined to us by membership in the Fellowship of Joy-and-Pain.

See Nicolai Pestretsov. I don't know much about him, I don't know where he is now, but I'll tell you what I know.

He was a sergeant major in the Russian army, thirty-six years old. He was stationed in Angola, a long way from home. His wife had come out to visit him.

On August 24, South African military units entered Angola in an offensive against the black nationalist guerrillas taking sanctuary there. At the village of N-Giva, they encountered a group of Russian soldiers. Four were killed and the rest of the Russians fled, except for Sergeant Major Pestretsov. He was captured, as we know because the South African military communique said:"Sgt. Major Nicolai Pestretsov refused to leave the body of his slain wife, who was killed in the assault on the village."

It was as if the South Africans could not believe it, for the communique repeated the information. "He went to the body of his wife and would not leave it, although she was dead."

How strange. Why didn't he run and save his own hide? What made him go back? Is it possible that he loved her? Is it possible that he wanted to hold her in his arms one last time? Is it possible that he needed to cry and grieve? Is it possible that he felt the stupidity of war? Is it possible that he felt the injustice of fate? Is it possible that he thought of children, born or unborn? Is it possible that he didn't care what became of him now?

It's possible. We don't know. Or at least we don't know for certain. But we can guess. His actions answer.

And so he sits alone in a South African prison. Not a "Russian" or "Communist" or "soldier" or "enemy" or any of those categories. Just-a-man, who cared for just-a-woman, for just-a-time, more than anything else.

Here's to you, Nicolai Pestretsov, wherever you may go and be, for giving powerful meaning to the promises that are the same everywhere; for dignifying that covenant that is the same in any language - "for better or for worse, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honor and cherish unto death, so help me God. "
You kept the faith; kept it bright, kept it shining. Bless you!

(Oh, the Russians are a rotten lot, immoral, aggressive, ruthless, coarse, and general evil. They are responsible for most of the troubles of this world. They are not like us. Yeah, right.)
*********************************
So there I am at the gym. All choked up.

I gave up and went into the shower. I wanted to come home and look him up.

He was real. Pestretsov was captured during something called Operation Protea. There was mention of his capture in Time magazine and his release in The New York Times.

Damn Fishmugger! there is no crying at the gym!

The Train

"R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited"

"Is Everybody Ok?"

"June 6, 1968"

"He loved life completely and he lived it intensely"

MG Rick Lynch Is Back

and he brought a good chunk of the 3rd ID with him.

Third Infantry Division officially home
June 6, 2008 08:09 PM EDT

By Dal Cannady bio email
FORT STEWART, GA (WTOC) - After 15 months in Iraq, the Third Infantry's commander returned to the Coastal Empire Monday. On Friday, the Fort Stewart community officially marked the division's return home.

The excitement was hard to miss Friday amid a live band and a full artillery salute. Major General Rick Lynch took off the casing from the division flag. General Lynch told the crowd Marne soldiers had served them and their country, well.

"I tell our soldiers the most important piece of furniture in the house is the mirror. When they look themselves in the mirror, what they saw was somebody truly making a difference," he said.

He outlined the progress made in Iraq and cautioned that freedom does not come free.

"It all came at a cost. 152 Dog Faced Soldiers paid the ultimate price. Over 800 were wounded over the course of 15 months," he noted.

General Lynch said of all the accolades he's received during this deployment, one stands above the rest. "The biggest accolade was just that I was a Dog Faced Soldier and I was proud to serve with those magnificent Dog Faced Soldiers," Lynch promised.

With one third of the division still in Iraq, General Lynch also reminded everyone to keep them and their families in their prayers.

The division's 2nd and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams, Aviation Brigade and Sustainment Brigade are due back later this year.

Commanders also unveiled Fort Stewart's new division headquarters building. It has more than three times the space of the old structure, which was built back in World War II, intended to be temporary. General Lynch says it gives them the space and the tools to run the best fighting force on earth.

"It gives me the communication I need. It gives me the information awareness I need. It gives me the space I need to have 400 folks in here at a time," he explained.

The building is named for Lt. Col. Keith Ware, a Third Infantry soldier who earned the medal of honor fighting in World War II.
**********************
Video link here.

I'm a Die Hard Red Sox fan..........

.......but damn this is cool! BZ to the San Diego Padres.


First Pitch Surprise!
by Adam Housley
Many of you new to this blog may not know that I am a huge baseball fan and have covered many a story that crosses over to the news side of things. So when I find a baseball story that becomes news I do my best to cover it and this one takes the cake for our national pastime. Last year we covered military opening day with the San Diego Padres and no other professional team goes as far as they do to support our men and women in uniform. While covering the Padres on this occasion and a few others, we became friends with their PR staff’s which include George Stieren and Warren Miller. They just had their colleague Erik Meyer send me the story and video of 11-year-old Brad Warnick, joined on the mound by mother Irene and 8-year-old sister Ashley, who thought they were just representing the USS Midway Museum in San Diego in honor of their fathers service in the Navy. BUT…..dressed in full Padres catching gear behind the plate was Petty Officer 1st Class Rick Warnick, their father & husband. Petty Officer Warnick is part of the crew currently deployed on the USS Nimitz, scheduled to return next month. Warnick was flown home early to surprise his family on the field through cooperative efforts of the USS Midway Museum and the Navy. This video is what it’s all about.
***********************
More on this story at Navy Compass.

The National Intrepid Center for Excellence

From DoDvClips - June 6, 2008
In this week's vlog, DoD New Media's MCSN William Selby checks out the groundbreaking for a new treatment center for traumatic brain injury (TBI), the National Intrepid Center for Excellence in Bethesda, Maryland, June 5, 2008. Please comment, and/or tell us what you think by personal message.Keep up to date with DoD New Media at DoDLive Blogspot See more DoD videos at DoDvClips

Midway - 3 Pivotal Days in June 1942

OK, I've been reading Midway stuff but not posting it.

The Armorer wrote a post and pointed us to the great Navy site, that I have been reading and realized that I should pass on - Course to Midway.

Of course, Steeljaw Scribe has several great posts.

He loved life completely and he lived it intensely.

"Is Everybody OK?"

"June 6, 1968"

"R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited"

"The Train"

June 6, 1944

I'm A Gatie Guy

I will post at more length (and more substance) later on the very interesting subject of today's Bloggers Roundtable with Col. Thomas J. McGrath, Commander ARSIC South,Kandahar, Afghanistan. You can listen here on BlogTalk Radio. The whole thing is interesting. My nonsense runs 8:53 to 10:40 and then again at the very end when we are signing off.

So, we are discussing the building of the Ministry of Defense Hospital when I ask my important follow-up question -

"I read you bio.......Where are really from? Gate of Heaven? St. Augustine's?"

"Ha! I'm a Gatie guy! Matter of fact I got commissioned on Old Ironsides back on June 20, 1981. How about you? I saw from ...you're a Townie. "

"Yeah, I'm a Townie!" I confirmed, laughing.

"So, where you from in Charlestown?

"The 'wrong hill' between the Constitution and the Monument."

"Okay, I know that well. Yes, indeed. We probably know each other."

"Well, I told them this is the only one I wasn't going to need an
interpreter for!"

Col. MacGrath agreed "Yeah, that's true. I picked up - I just heard that voice of home. I was like, oh, that sounds wonderful. Well, that's wonderful.
My family's still back in Southie, and my sister lives in my mother's house, and my other sister lives where my father grew up. So, you know about Irish people - we never leave home. (We laughed) Except for me. Go, Celtics! Right?

Hehehe! And he talked as fast as I do!

Private First Class Jacklyn Harold Lucas, Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division.

WWII vet who earned Medal of Honor at 17 dies
By CHRIS TALBOTT
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Miss., hospital. He was 80.
Read the rest here.
*************************************
The Story of Jack Lucas
by William Standring

Fourteen and fresh from boot camp, Jacklyn Lucas was bound for glory.

THE YOUNGEST AMERICAN so far to win the Medal of Honor was a two-fisted, fire-plug of a kid who wanted so badly to fight he lied about his age to enlist, stowed away on a troopship to get into the war, and was at least technically AWOL when he got his shot at combat. He was, of course, a Marine – Private First Class Jacklyn Harold Lucas, Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division.
Lucas’s story is as well begun as anywhere "during," to quote his citation, "action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 20 February 1945."
As Lucas recalls, he’d come ashore at Red Beach with the third or fourth wave in a four-man fire team. They fought across the pork-chop shaped island’s western waist and dug in for the night. Early the next afternoon, the commendation says, "while creeping through a treacherous twisting ravine which ran in close proximity to a fluid and uncertain front line on D- plus- I -day, PFC Lucas and three other men were suddenly ambushed by a hostile patrol which savagely attacked with rifle fire and grenades. "
Quick to act when the lives of the small group were endangered by two grenades which landed directly in front of them, PFC Lucas unhesitatingly hurled himself over his comrades upon 1 grenade and pulled the other under him, absorbing. the whole blasting forces of the explosions in his own body in order to shield his companions from the concussion and murderous flying fragments. By his inspiring action and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice, he not only protected his comrades from certain injury or possible death but also enabled them to rout the Japanese patrol and continue the advance."
The broken, bloody, shrapnel-riddled soldier the stretcher-bearers hustled away had been 17 for less than a week."
Maybe," a surgeon said, "he was too damned young, and too damned tough to die." That was offshore aboard the hospital ship Samaritan, when it began to look as if Lucas would live. Before the doctors were done, he’d go under the knife 22 times. There are still about 200 pieces of scrap iron in him, some the size of .22-caliber bullets. Lucas sets off airport metal detectors.
Read the rest here.
********************************
MEDAL OF HONOR: JACK H. LUCAS
Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2008 12:20 PM by Petra Cahill
Jack Lucas was a cadet captain in the military school where his mother had enrolled him after his father’s death when he heard radio reports of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The next day he promised his mother that if she let him enlist, he would come home after the war and finish his education—but he wound up forging her signature on the consent form because she would have to lie for him. Lucas, big for his age, told the Marine recruiters he was seventeen. Shortly before being sent to the training center at Parris Island, South Carolina, he turned fourteen.

Troops were moving out to Hawaii, but because of his experience in military school, Lucas was ordered to stay behind and drill new recruits. He knew his buddies were ultimately headed for combat, so he hopped onto the train with them—in effect going AWOL to get into the war. Once in Hawaii, he managed to convince officers that he was there because of a clerical error.
Read the rest here.
********************************
Pretty amazing, right? A lot for one lifetime, right? But that's not all. Yeah, he finished high school, and went to college. He lived a colorful life and married three times. But my favorite part?
After the war, Lucas earned a business degree from High Point University in North Carolina and raised, processed and sold beef in the Washington, D.C., area. In the 1960s, he joined the Army and became a paratrooper, Drum said, to conquer his fear of heights. On a training jump, both of his parachutes failed.
"He was the last one out of the airplane and the first one on the ground," Drum said.

Amazing!

Fair winds and following seas to a great Marine and soldier.
***********************
The Armorer's post.

June 6, 1968

Kennedy is Dead, Victim of Assassin; Suspect, Arab Immigrant, Arraigned; Johnson Appoints Panel on Violence

Surgery in Vain

President Calls Death Tragedy, Proclaims a Day of Mourning
Arab Arraigned; $250,000 Bail Set

By GLADWIN HILL
Special to The New York Times

Los Angeles, Thursday, June 6--Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of a murdered President, died at 1:44 A.M. today of an assassin's shots.

The New York Senator was wounded more than 20 hours earlier, moments after he had made his victory statement in the California primary.

At his side when he died today in Good Samaritan Hospital were his wife Ethel; his sisters, Mrs. Stephen Smith and Mrs. Patricia Lawford; his bother-in-law, Stephen Smith; and his sister-in-law, Mrs. John F. Kennedy, whose husband was assassinated 4 1/2 years ago in Dallas.

In Washington, President Johnson issued a statement calling the death a tragedy. He proclaimed next Sunday a national day of mourning.

The Final Report
Hopes had risen slightly when more than eight hours went by without a new medical bulletin on the stricken Senator, but the grimness of the final announcement was signaled when Frank Mankiewicz, Mr. Kennedy's press secretary, walked slowly down the street in front of the hospital toward the littered gymnasium that served as press headquarters.

Mr. Mankiewicz bit his lip. His shoulders slumped.

He stepped to a lectern in front of a green-tinted chalkboard and bowed his head for a moment while the television lights snapped on.

Then, at one minute before 2 A.M., he told of the death of Mr. Kennedy.

Following is the text of the statement from Mr. Mankiewicz:
"I have a short announcement to read which I will read at this time. Senator Robert Francis Kennedy died at 1:44 A.M. today, June 6, 1968. With Senator Kennedy at the time of his death was his wife, Ethel; his sisters, Mrs. Patricia Lawford and Mrs. Stephen Smith, his brother-in-law, Stephen Smith and his sister-in-law, Mrs. John F. Kennedy.

"He was 42 years old."

Senator Kennedy's body will be taken to New York this morning and then to Washington.

The man accused of shooting Mr. Kennedy early yesterday in a pantry of the Ambassador Hotel was identified as Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, 24 years old, who was born in Palestinian Jerusalem of Arab parentage and had lived in the Los Angeles area since 1957. Sirhan had been a clerk.

$250,000 Bail
Yesterday, he was hurried through an early-morning court arraignment and held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Sirhan was charged with six counts of assault with intent to murder, an offense involving a prison term of 1 to 14 years.

Five other persons in addition to the 42-year-old Senator were wounded by the eight bullets from a .22-caliber revolver fired at almost point-blank range into a throng of Democratic rally celebrants surging between ballrooms in the hotel. The shots came moments after Senator Kennedy had made a speech celebrating his victory in yesterday's Democratic Presidential primary in California.

The defendant, seized moments after the shooting, refused to give the police any information about himself. He was arraigned as "John Doe."

Three hours later, Mayor Samuel W. Yorty announced at a news conference at police headquarters that the defendant had been identified as Sirhan. He said the identity had been confirmed by Sirhan's brother and a second individual.

Senator Kennedy, accompanied by his wife, Ethel, was wheeled into the Good Samaritan Hospital shortly after 1 A.M. yesterday after a brief stop at the Central Receiving Hospital. A score of the Senator's campaign aides swarmed around the scene.

Grim Reminder
Less than five years back many of them had experienced the similar tragedy that ended the life of President John F. Kennedy.

At 2:22 A.M., Senator Kennedy's campaign press secretary, Frank Mankiewicz, came out of the hospital into a throng of hundreds of news people to announce that the Senator would be taken into surgery "in five or ten minutes" for an operation of "45 minutes or an hour."

One bullet had gone into the Senator's brain past the mastoid bone back of the right ear, with some fragments going near the brain stem. Another bullet lodged in the back of the neck. A third and minor wound was an abrasion on the forehead.

It was after 7 A.M. when Mr. Mankiewicz reported that more than three hours of surgery had been completed, and all but one fragment of the upper bullet had been removed. The neck bullet was not removed but "is not regarded as a major problem," Mr. Mankiewicz said.

He also reported that the Senator's vital signs remained about as they had been, except that he was now breathing on his own, which he had not been doing before the surgery. Then Mr. Mankiewicz said:
"There may have been an impairment of the blood supply to the mid-brain, which the doctors explained as governing certain of the vital signs--heart, eye track, level of consciousness--although not directly the thinking process."

Senator Kennedy was taken from surgery to an intensive-care unit.

At 2:15 P.M. Mr. Mankiewicz announced that Senator Kennedy had not regained consciousness and that a series of medical tests had been "inconclusive and don't show measurable improvement in Senator Kennedy's condition."

"His condition as of 1:30 P.M. remains extremely critical," the spokesman continued. "His life forces--pulse, temperature, blood pressure and heart--remain good, and he continues to show the ability to breathe on his own, although he is being assisted by a resuscitator."
The tests included X-rays and electroencephalograms.

Mrs. Kennedy remained at the hospital.

Mrs. John F. Kennedy arrived at the hospital at 7:30 P.M. yesterday, after a chartered plane flight from New York.

A team of surgeons treating Senator Kennedy included Dr. James Poppen, head of neurosurgery at the Lahey Clinic in Boston. He was rushed to Los Angeles in an Air Force plane on instructions from Vice President Humphrey.

Mr. Humphrey and Senator Eugene J. McCarthy of Minnesota have been Senator Kennedy's rivals in the Democratic Presidential competition.

Mayor Yorty said the defendant's identification had come through a brother, Adel Sirhan, after the police had traced the ownership of the .22-caliber revolver involved in the shooting to a third brother, Munir Bishari Salameh Sirhan, also known as Joe Sirhan.

The weapon was traced through three owners, one in suburban Alabama, the next in Marin County, adjacent to San Francisco, and back to an 18-year-old youth in suburban Pasadena.

The youth said he had sold it to "a bushy-haired guy named Joe" whom he knew only as an employee of a Pasadena department store.

Detectives identified the bushy haired man as Munir Sirhan. From him, the trail led to the two other brothers, who have been living together in Pasadena.

The snubnosed .22-caliber Iver Johnson Cadet model revolver seized after the shooting was described as having been picked out of a list of 2.5 million weapons registered in California in "just seconds" after the disclosure of its serial number. This was done by a new computer used by the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification in Sacramento, according to State Attorney General Thomas Lynch.

The defendant was arraigned at 7 A.M., unusually early, before Municipal Judge Joan Dempsey Klein on a complaint issued by District Attorney Evelle Younger after all-night consultation with the police.

Deputy District Attorney William Ritzi said the case would be presented to the county grand jury on Friday.

The other victims of the shooting were Paul Schrade, 43 years old, a regional director of the United Automobile and Aerospace Workers Union, a prominent Kennedy campaigner; William Weisel, 30, a unit manager for the American Broadcasting Company; Ira Goldstein, 19, an employee of Continental New Service at nearby Sherman Oaks; Mrs. Elizabeth Evans, 43, of Sangus, in Los Angeles County, and Irwin Stroll, 17.

Mr. Schrade, the most seriously wounded of the five, underwent an apparently successful operation at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital today to remove a bullet from his skull.

Mr. Weisel was reported in good condition after removal of a bullet from his abdomen.

The court complaint against Sirhan charged that "on or about the fifth day of June, 1968, at and in the county of Los Angeles a felony was committed by John Doe, who at the time and place aforesaid, did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously commit an assault with a deadly weapon upon Robert Francis Kennedy, a human being, with the intent then and there willfully, unlawfully, feloniously and with malice aforethought to kill and murder the said Robert Francis Kennedy."

Sirhan was represented at the arraignment by the chief public defender, Richard S. Buckley. He asked Mr. Buckley to get in touch with the American Civil Liberties Union about getting private counsel for him.
************************
"R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited"
"Is Everybody Ok?"
"He loved life completely and he lived it intensely."
"The Train"

"Is everybody O.K.?"

Those are among the last words spoken by Bobby Kennedy as he lay dying on the floor of the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel kitchen in Los Angeles, June 5, 1968. He also spoke with Ethel before being taken to the hospital.
I remember being told that the young man in this photo was Juan Romero, a busboy and he had handed Bobby Rosary beads. I recall how relieved I was to know that he had them. I read an interview that Time magazine did with Juan Romero in 1998. I remember again being flooded with relief that Bobby had those Rosary beads to comfort him.

My parents shielded me from much of this at the time, of course. I was 7. But later I listened to this recording of a reporter named Andrew West who was there. He was yelling as those surrounding Sirhan Sirhan to "break his thumb" in order to get the gun away.
****************
"R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited"
"June 6, 1968"
"He loved life completely and he lived it intensely."
"The Train"

I Am A Prude

I didn't know it before last night.

Jen & I went to see "Sex & The City", which we liked. But I thought the graphic sex scenes were not alluring at all. I found the Miranda sex scene "ehh" and the stuff Samantha watched left me cold. But the scene where Carrie came home and walked through the darkened, candlelit apartment to find Big on the deck was incredibly sexy.

Guess I am just a throwback to those 50s movies I love so much.

What is sexier than Cary Grant kissing Eva Marie Saint at 1:20 of this clip?

Where's A Friggin' Hot Flash When You Need One?

I was out in the rain, soaked through, getting a patient's wheelchair into her trunk. It 61, but breezy and once you are soaking wet...............

Well let's just say that hot flash right then would have been nice.

Karaoke with Larry Izzo and the New England Patriots

Karaoke with Larry Izzo and the New England Patriots
A Benefit for our Troops and Their Families
2008 Event Info
Date: Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: The Roxy
279 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116
Tickets:Available now via Ticketmaster
Proceeds go to Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund (MSLF), Pat Tillman Foundation, The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF), Operation Ensuring Christmas, Homes for Our Troops, and Fallen Patriot
******************************************
If you can - go. I wish I could. If you don't have tickets, there will be some at the door.

Oh, The Pain!!!

First this.................

and now...............

I have been offered something. Something I don't deserve. Something that I could have for the asking. It should go to someone deserving. But I could take it.............

I'm doing the right thing.

It hurts!

Noooooooo!

I wanted it to go on forever! "It would have been crazy! Crazy exciting" to quote my Bad Boyfriend.

Clinton set to concede delegate race to Obama

Bigg Bill called and told me 16 minutes before this broke on Drudge or Fox. How does he do that?

From Beer Girl

My favorite Beer Girl is Maryann from Soldier's Angels Germany. She has a great blog and comments other places as well. I was reading the comments on Cassandra's trouncing of that assclown, Garrison Keillor, when Maryann pops up -

First she writes -
"He should not only take his own advice about silence. It sounds as though he would be well served to take note of Debbie Johnson's comment about how participating in the PGR events gives her a "moment to not think of myself.”

and then a little later -
"Yeah, here's Memorial Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VSBgzKmIkU
camo, some guys like you rode past the home of SGT James Hackemer as a sign of support for his family as well as in memory of our Fallen Heroes. Hack's currently recovering from serious injuries sustained in March of this year in Iraq."

I followed the link in her comment and it's the video below. The "Camo" she speaks to in the comments is another commenter who wants us to know he isn't fat. H/T to the Armorer for sending me over this morning, thanks baby.

Harriet Christian

Clinton supporter Harriet Christian angry after Rules & Bylaws committee meeting on Florida and Michigan.

But I Did My Homework!

This morning's roundtable will be rescheduled due to technical problems.

I Won't Need An Interpreter!

Tomorrow's Blogger Roundtable is Col. Thomas McGrath - he's from Southie! LOL No one else will understand us, but who cares?

Coulter on Hitler, Ahmadinejad, and Tingling

YOU CAN'T APPEASE EVERYBODY
May 28, 2008
“After decades of comparing Nixon to Hitler, Reagan to Hitler and Bush to Hitler, liberals have finally decided it is wrong to make comparisons to Hitler. But the only leader to whom they have applied their newfound rule of thumb is: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While Ahmadinejad has not done anything as starkly evil as cut the capital gains tax, he does deny the Holocaust, call for the destruction of Israel, deny the existence of gays in Iran and refuses to abandon his nuclear program despite protests from the United Nations. That’s the only world leader we’re not allowed to compare to Hitler.

President Bush's speech at the Knesset two weeks ago was somewhat more nuanced than liberals' Hitler arguments. He did not simply jump up and down chanting: "Ahmadinejad is Hitler!" Instead, Bush condemned a policy of appeasement toward madmen, citing Neville Chamberlain's ill-fated talks with Adolf Hitler.

Suspiciously, Bush's speech was interpreted as a direct hit on B. Hussein Obama's foreign policy -- and that's according to Obama's supporters.
***********************snip****************
The only explanation for liberals’ hysterical zealotry in favor of Obama’s proposed open-ended talks with Ahmadinejad is that they seriously imagine crazy foreign dictators will be as charmed by Obama as cable TV hosts whose legs tingle when they listen to Obama (a condition that used to be known as ‘sciatica’).

Because, really, who better to face down a Holocaust denier with a messianic complex than the guy who is afraid of a debate moderated by Brit Hume?”
**********************snip**************** —
LOL! These were just a few snippets. Read the whole thing here.

Bye Mr. Keillor

I have enjoyed your segments on NPR's Morning Edition. But I have to cut you off. Your latest missive is insufferable. I know that the overwhelming majority of NPR is quite liberal. However, your screed about Memorial Day and the Rolling Thunder event is too much to take.

The Armorer does his usual fabulous job of cutting asshats down to size. It wasn't difficult Mr. Keillor, you are a very little man.

Garrison Keillor... clueless in Lake Woebegon.

Other reaction here:
The Adventures of Bounce and Clyde the Motorcycle.
Gateway Pundit.
Yankee Mom.

Not to be missed is Cassandra of Villainous Company!

Princess Crabby Knows How To Follow Orders

Kinda.......
Well, sometimes.
Ummm, in this case?
YES. That's it. In this case. Definitely. In this case, Princess Crabby knows how to follow orders!

FbL, posting at the Castle in the H&I Fires and CDR Salamander both linked to Major John at Miserable Donuts and Milblogs. They told me to go and look and I followed orders.....you should too.

Why I fight - in pictures[Major John]
Don't waste any anger on the downbeat tone of the writing, but instead - give credit to the WaPo for letting the world see these images. They tell, in better elequence than a hundred blog posts of my writing, of why I am here helping the Iraqi Army .

Follow the link and see what Major John sees, what all of America needs to see.

Congratulations Mrs. Lynch

Dear Mrs. Lynch,

I write a lot about your husband, MG (soon to be Lt. Gen.) Rick Lynch, and congratulate him on his accomplishments. But I'm betting he would credit you with some of his success. So congratulations to you, Mrs. Lynch.

This article says that you are a native of Killeen, Texas, and that Rick has been assigned to Fort Hood in the past. So I suppose this must be like a homecoming. Good for you. I hope you enjoy your husband's new position, your relocation to Texas and having him back stateside.

I know I am not alone when I express my appreciation for the sacrifices you have made that have allowed Rick to do what he does in the service of our country.


Best wishes,
Maggie

R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited

June 1, 2008
R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited
Text by JAMES STEVENSON
June 8, 1968
Earlier in the day, the vast St. Patrick’s Cathedral, all chandeliers and gold, was jammed with mourners. Senator Edward Kennedy spoke, his voice cracking as he struggled to say, “My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”
Now the long train carrying Robert F. Kennedy’s coffin rumbled south, passing miles and miles of people who had come to the railroad track to honor him, to say goodbye.
*************************************
Regular readers know that RFK was/is important to me. I have written on this before (here, here, here). I will always stop to read an article that mentions him. Today's NYT magazine had this article and it's very interesting. The author writes about Paul Fusco, a photographer who was aboard the train which carried RFK from New York to Washington. Fusco has written a book which will come out in September. Meanwhile his work will appear as an exhibit in New York. Much as it pains me to contemplate going to New York.....I will go. I have wanted to go and visit Ground Zero, so two birds, one stone. His exhibit is titled “R.F.K. Funeral Train— Rediscovered,” and will appear at Danziger Projects in New York from June 6 to July 31.

The article had an interactive feature that captivated me. It is a series of photographs that Fusco took from the train of those along the tracks. He narrates it sparingly.
****************
"Is Everybody O.K.?"
"June 6, 1968"
"He loved life completely and he lived it intensely.'
"The Train"

In the Pacific, a New Kind of Monument Is Proposed

In the Pacific, a New Kind of Monument Is Proposed
By FELICITY BARRINGER

The Bush administration is taking steps to create a new kind of national monument encompassing Pearl Harbor and other World War II sites in the Pacific.

If the president declares a Pacific war monument, it will require rethinking the concept of how monuments are organized. Unlike land-based national monuments or the relatively new Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument — 139,800 square miles of ocean waters and coral reefs around the archipelago northwest of Hawaii’s main islands — the areas in the monument being contemplated are not contiguous.

“Traditionally, a monument is some fixed piece of geography, and you draw a line around it and that’s it,” said Lyle Laverty, the assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks at the Interior Department.

The idea of a monument that commemorates the Pacific theater “presents an interesting challenge,” Mr. Laverty said, not just because the elements are not contiguous, but also because the monument could be in close proximity to active naval operations.

A memorandum from President Bush to the interior and defense secretaries released on Friday by the White House asked for their assessment of the value of a monument declaration “at Pearl Harbor and other sites associated with the war in the Pacific.” It added that recommendations should avoid “limiting the Department of Defense from carrying out” its mission.

The areas under consideration would include Ford Island, which was adjacent to battleship row in Pearl Harbor, where most of the large ships were sunk by Japanese bombers on Dec. 7, 1941. The memorandum made no mention of other sites being contemplated, but Midway and Wake Islands and Guam saw crucial World War II battles.

Aside from the northwest Hawaiian Islands monument, Mr. Bush has established the African Burial Ground National Monument at Duane and Elk Streets in Lower Manhattan.

There has been a temptation for presidents to declare a spate of national monuments as part of their legacy near the end of their term.

President Bill Clinton declared 21 national monuments. One of the most controversial, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, was declared just before his re-election in 1996; 10 others were designated in his last year in office, including Governors Island in New York and the Desert Sonoran National Monument in Arizona.

In a telephone interview Friday, Kenneth H. DeHoff, the executive director of the Pacific Aviation Museum in Pearl Harbor, said that in 2006 he met with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and began discussions of a monument that would reach beyond the memorial at the battleship Arizona, on which hundreds of sailors died and which is partially submerged.

Mr. DeHoff said the designation could provide the incentive for preserving other structures at Pearl Harbor, like the control tower on Ford Island. By including distant battlegrounds like Wake and Midway Islands, he said, the monument could weave the strands of battles that took place thousands of miles apart.