February 2005 Archives

I had no idea that anyone took color photographs during World War I. They look a bit stilted, but that's probably due to low shutter speeds or somesuch. They're still fascinating.

Hat tip: Vodkapundit

Not too long ago I created a bumper sticker:

The point I was trying to make is now back in the news. It turns out that NPR's Bob Sommer isn't the only lefty who's feeling prickly about yellow ribbons and "Support The Troops" stickers. UMass student Thomas Naughton's self-described guilt spurs him to tear yellow "Support The Troops" ribbons from other people's cars, as he explains in his The Daily Collegian column:

Guilt can only weigh on a person's mind for so long before they crave the act of purgation; to get the weighty feelings of shame and responsibility out of the mind -- or at least the guilty parties attempt to find some kind of peace if they cannot rid themselves of a screaming conscience that implicates and indicts its possessor.

That said, perhaps some readers will understand why my friends and I rip yellow ribbon "support the troops" magnets off of cars or wherever people have affixed them. By ripping off these ribbons, we find a way to deal with our guilt, as though with each ribbon swiped we take back a life that was taken by this senseless war started by our senseless president and those who support him.

I will never say, "support the troops." I don't believe in the validity of that statement. People say, "I don't support the war, I support the troops" as though you can actually separate the two. You cannot; the troops are a part of the war, they have become the war and there is no valid dissection of the two. Other people shout with glaring eyes that we should give up our politics, give up our political affiliations in favor of "just supporting the troops." I wish everything were that easy.

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We say, "support the troops" so that we won't feel guilty about saying "no" to war. We reason that if we say that we support the troops, somehow we aren't monsters for not saying a word when the death tolls of U.S. soldiers climbed above 1,000. Those ribbons are yellow for a reason, they are not the mark of armed forces support, they are the mark of cowards.

Pundits on the radio advise their cowardly listeners to approach men and women in army uniforms and say "thank you." I cannot do that. Every time I pass a person in uniform I look long and hard at them and all I can think inside to say is "I'm so sorry." I want to apologize to them, to their families and to their friends. I feel sorry that we, the people, couldn't control our own government at the outset of this conflict when most of us knew deep inside that it was a mistake.

Where are we now? Are we in a better place? Is the world safer for democracy? No, it is not safer and we are not in a better place. In this war that we are fighting to somehow avenge the deaths of the Sept. 11 tragedy, we have amassed a field of body bags, the number of which almost matches the number killed in the terrorist attacks four years ago.

Naughton's column caught Michael Medved's attention today, and his invitation to Naughton to come on the air has so far gone unanswered. No big surprise there.

When I created my bumper sticker I pointed out the same brand of self-serving lefty illogic that Naughton chews on. Though he and I come down on opposite sides in the debate over the war (not to mention respect for property rights), we both understand that in this war it's not possible to meaningfully support the troops while also believing that the troops are engaged in a criminal military adventure.

My recommendation? Get two stickers and give one to a liberal relative or friend.

More blogging:
QandO
Marine Corps Moms
Angry in the Great White North
Mark Nicodemo
This Untamed Fire Of Freedom
Precinct 333
Grim's Hall
Clear and Present
Joobo the King of Wisdom
A Word From The Right
The Eyrie
A Logical Voice (agrees with Naughton)

Ayad Rahim opened today's Dennis Prager Show with a report from Iraq on Syria's involvement in the training of jihadist headchopping savages who later terrorized Baghdad and Fallujah.

Iraqi state television aired a video yesterday showing what the U.S.-funded channel said was the confession of a captured Syrian officer, who said he trained Iraqi terrorists to behead people and build car bombs to attack American and Iraqi troops.

He also said the terrorists practiced beheading animals to train for decapitating hostages.

Later, Al Iraqiya aired another round of interviews with men it said were Sudanese and Egyptians who also trained in Syria to carry out attacks in Iraq.

More at Instapundit.

I've moved in. The boxes are everywhere, but at least I've got a net connection running, so I'll be posting again soon. Thanks for your patience.

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UPDATE: Tired. Very tired. Must rest. Blog can wait.

Here's a succint summary of CNN executive Eason Jordan's career-ending slander, exposed by bloggers.

First a Senate Majority Leader, then a presidential candidate, then a Senate Minority Leader, then a network news anchor, and now a cable news executive ... all were cut down by bloggers exposing their misbehavior. Looks like accountability's back in effect, eh?

You've got to be kidding me. Thanks (I think) to The Open End for finding this.

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Update: Gay activists have foiled the zoo's "forced harassment through female seductresses." Now the Humboldt Penguins are free to go gaily into extinction.

7/14/09 Update: Awwwww ...

This past Saturday, the feds raided a mosque and a CPA's office here in Cleveland:

First of all, I'd like to welcome a new advertiser here, WMD: The Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein. It's a new movie, and even if you don't see it up on the marquee at your local 20-screen megaplex, you can get a DVD for yourself at the very reasonable price of $19.95.

The creative minds behind this project include Brad L. Maaske, Jano Rosebiani, Victor Davis Hanson (a brilliant military historian and thinker), Evan Coyne Maloney (sane Americans' answer to Michael Moore), and Judith Mendelsohn Rood. My copy of the DVD is on its way here, and when I get a chance to watch it I'll let you know if it's as good as it looks to be. In the meantime you can browse some good reviews here or check out the trailer here.

An excerpt describing the project:

Alarmed by the lack of outcry against the atrocities committed by Hussein's regime, Maaske set out to uncover the truth surrounding the under-reported acts of atrocity committed directly by or under the command of Saddam Hussein, along with Iraq's links to global terrorism and America's military action to remove Hussein from power. Central to the story are eyewitness accounts and never-before-seen footage of chemical attacks, murders and torture leveled against the population of Iraq dating from Saddam's corrupt rise to power and spanning more than two decades.

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Although many filmmakers have chosen to ignore the horrific atrocities that the Iraqi people had to endure under Hussein and the sacrifice that American soldiers have made to free them from these atrocities, WMD directs the viewer to the little-known facts. Regardless of anyone's political views, the story of Saddam Hussein's evil reign, and the horrors that were thankfully ended by bringing this reign to an end, is one that all Americans should know.

Give WMD: The Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein a look. I know I will.

Now, my second announcement. I'm moving on Saturday, so for the next several days my access to the 'net will be spotty at best. I'll be back in the saddle by Monday with a nice high-speed connection (or so Comcast assures me).

See you then if not sooner!

Here's a kick-butt advertising clip from Israel circa 2002, hawking the Merkava tank. Reminds me of the jihadi rifleman's nightmare. Even this Coastie's impresseed.

Hat tip: Target Centermass

General Mattis is in good company. Nice find, Beth.

Now if only the Mainstream Media would stop dogpiling General Mattis and look at Eason Jordan a wee bit more closely ...

The Long Tail meme keeps rolling on ... and here's a neat new experiment to illustrate (more details here).

Who says nothing cool comes from Canada, eh?

The earth's crust around Anatahan Island continues to do the seismic boogaloo. I've reminisced about this before. This time, the stink has drifted all the way south to Guam.

Yet another reason I'm glad to be home in Cleveland.

Hat tip: Speed Of Thought

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UPDATE: No need to sweat tsunamis on Guam. It's pretty darn safe.

I keep hearing the buzz that Deep Throat, the famous secret source for Woodward and Bernstein's story that broke the Watergate scandal wide open, is a very sick man and is near death. Chief Justice Rehnquist was a Nixon appointee to the Supreme Court in 1972, and I think he was in the Nixon Administration before that. Rehnquist has cancer, and certainly looked pretty bad at the inauguration. Bob Woodward keeps saying he won't reveal Deep Throat's identity until the source dies.

Why couldn't it be Rehnquist? I don't think I'm out to lunch here. I recall somebody speculating that it was George H. W. Bush, but he looked hale and hearty at the SuperBowl this past Sunday. Until I hear of another sick Nixon Administration official, my bet's on Rehnquist.

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UPDATE: In the 1974 case of United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that the President had to turn over his secret audiotapes to the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. Justice Rehnquist recused himself, and everybody assumed the reason was his status as a Nixon appointee. Could the reason for his recusal be that he was Deep Throat? I wonder who Rehnquist's law clerks were back then; they might know quite a bit.

UPDATE 2: The lefties at Kevin Drum's blog are speculating. Looks like I'm not the only one pinning the tail on Rehnquist. So far, Google News has got zip for a query with Rehnquist "Deep Throat" ... so far. PPK Blog thinks it's the Chief too.

UPDATE 3: K-Lo wonders about Rehnquist, thanks to D Magazine's quoting Kevin McCarthy.

UPDATE 4: Great minds ...

UPDATE 5: Beth's on the Rehnquist train too.

UPDATE 6: Drumwaster thinks it's Gerald Ford, but I'm not sure Ford was as much of a cipher as Drumwaster makes him out to be. There's really no such thing as a low-profile VP anymore.

Here's another fine American who's been recommended for the Medal of Honor for his bravery in the Battle of Fallujah. The wounded man in the middle is Marine 1st Sergeant Brad Kasal. Remember his name, because before long he's probably going to be mentioned in the same breath as Rafael Peralta.

How can we lose, with men like these?

Here's the Budweiser Super Bowl ad thanking the troops. Amen.

Remember that other country we liberated? The one that disappeared from the media's radar after a successful election? It's still there, and Chrenkoff's got the latest good news.

As the old riddle goes, if a tree falls in the forest and no one's there to hear it, does it make a sound? Or more importantly, if a country like Afghanistan is getting back on its feet and there's no one to report it, does it actually happen? As far as the people of Afghanistan are concerned, thankfully yes; as far as the rest of the world, all too often the answer is no. That's why it's so important that the stories of Afghans - and those who are helping them - be told.

Bravo, Afghans.

A gang of Baathist/Islamist thugs tried to punish the citizens of Al Mudiryiah for voting in Sunday's election.

You picked the wrong doggone village, fellas. The final score? Villagers: 5, Terrorists: 0. Nice shootin', folks.

Hat tip: Instapundit

This is why I don't pick fights with other bloggers. Geesh, people. Calm down.

Neener neener.

Sergeant 1st Class Paul Smith will receive the Medal of Honor (posthumously) next month. For all Medal of Honor citations, see the incongruously-named Congressional Medal of Honor Society. There's more general info at Wikipedia.

I'll bet President Bush mentions Segreant Smith in his State of the Union address tonight.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

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UPDATE: Can anybody tell me what the Medal of Honor Flag looks like?

UPDATE 2: A study in contrasts.

I'm heartened to see that at least one young reflexive Bush-hater can see his error after speaking to Iraqis. An excerpt:

You may think that you have felt dumb before, but let me tell you something: until you have stood in front of a man who knows real pain and told him that you are against your country's alleviation of his country's state-sponsored murderous suffering, you have not felt truly, deeply, like a total f****** moron.

I still am no Bush fan, and I know that America got lied to. I know we shouldn't have gone, and I think Rove is as evil as they come. But through all this deception and lying, through all this dismemberment and pain, America has wrought a beautiful, fantastic side effect: joy, freedom and a hope for peace. Does it take lies and misdirection to do this?? Is this what the other side of justice is? I feel like such a whiner and I don't know what to think anymore. Ultimately, in total defiance of my mother and grandmother�s teachings, two wrongs have made a right and my moral compass is tired and busted.

I can't tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys, and I want a clear cut mandate, some lines to believe along. But there aren't any. There's just right and wrong and following your heart of hearts. And for the first time in my life, I can say that I was wrong to be compulsively critical of the current administration without seeking my own truth.

A neocon in the making, perhaps?

Hat tip: She Who Will Be Obeyed

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UPDATE: SMASH reponds, and gets a response.

Matt Heidt is right. The jihadis in Iraq are getting desperate for any kind of success. But now they've really begun to circle the drain; they've begun making hostage videos of toy soldiers.

Do the Jihadi Joe action figures who took John Adam "Special Ops Cody" hostage get 72 Barbie dolls if they die for Allah? Silly me, I meant 72 Razanne dolls (see photo to right), not the blonde-haired Western she-devils.

Of course, you can just take the mercenary's shortcut ... for $644.40 you can buy 72 Razannes and have Paradise on Earth (after about 7 business days for shipping and handling). But the company doesn't ship to Belarus, Indonesia, Liberia, Pakistan, Nigeria, or Romania ... so if you're plotting Toy Jihad© there, you'll just have to blow your plastic self up at a Barbie Fashion Show Mall.

Speaking of ridiculous jihadis (yes, yes, I know it's redundant), do you remember Evil Bert appearing with Osama?

Click on the unaltered (I swear!) picture below for all the background info.

Too funny. I sense a photoshopping contest approaching ...

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UPDATE: Save Elmo!

UPDATE 2: When will it end? Oh, the humanity ...

UPDATE 3: At least we caught Osama, so we've got that goin' for us. Which is nice.

UPDATE 4: The blogosphere gutted this farce in short order. I love this hobby.

UPDATE 5: The geniuses at Democratic Underground took the bait ... hook, line, and sinker.