The Face of Grace

Paul A. emailed me about This story from The American Legion. The father of a US soldier in Iraq gives us a glimpse into something the MSM will never dare show us:

Stationed outside a city on the Tigris River, Luke had accompanied his colonel into town as part of a security team, while the colonel spoke with a local sheik. While standing guard, Luke noticed a woman approaching from behind and cautiously turned in her direction, his rifle at the ready.

An interpreter told our son it was OK – the woman just wanted to touch a soldier. Still uneasy, Luke stood still while the woman reached out her hand and touched his face, tears in her eyes.

Looking to the interpreter for meaning, our son was told that the woman simply "wanted to touch the face of grace." It seems this trembling woman, like most of the people in her town, looked upon our soldiers as angels of grace, sent by God to protect her from the violence and oppression her people had come to know up to then. Learning this, our son squeezed and kissed the woman’s hand, and she left, weeping.

This is how we won. We let these people hear how freedom rings. At least some of them are thankful for it, as should we all be.

If He Keeps This Up...

I'm going to have to start paying him.

So here we are again - my Euro/Arab friend (who I will refer to as "Mo") says that:

"as for Russia and Iran, it’s time America stopped walking around with it’s chest sticking out, bulling everyone.
Let others shoulder some of the leadership. I think you will be surprised how much Iran is interested in stability , as well as Russia."

In the words of MuscleDaddy-the-Elder: "Ok - Let's Review"...

Hmmm - yeah... let Russia shoulder some 'Leadership'...

Do you know anyone in Georgia?
I know people in Georgia ...

- if you'd like, I could let you ask them how Russia's "Leadership" and "desire for stability" has been working out so far...

And that "Show of Power" - sending a missle cruiser to Venezuela?

- No, I'm sure you're right...
Clearly only demonstating Russia's desire for stability with THAT move.

And ... Iran?

If Iran "wants stability" - why ignore sanctions (which makes it harder to feed their people) and continue enriching uranium?

- and don't bother saying 'for nuclear power' - they have more oil than they could even use (that 'oil giant' thing)

- and don't bother saying 'to go nuke to protect the environment' - if that were a real concern, they'd stop selling oil to every country with the intent to burn it.

- and don't bother saying 'to defend themselves' - No one is threatening Iran with nukes - Hell, no one would be interested in attacking Iran at all if they'd back off of developing nuclear weapons, threatening other countries (even if they're dirty Jooooos) and funding terrorists all over the world.
(go ahead - try and tell me they're not)

- and you might as well forget the "Don't want to be told what to do" meme - that is not the attitude of a "stability-craving" government.

They have as much money as they could ever need - all anyone's ever said is:
"Quit trying to build nukes, quit sponsoring terrorists and quit threatening other countries with total annihilation, and you can do what ever you want - free trade - open international relations - whatever"...

- doesn't seem unreasonable,
but they just can't seem to go with that for the sake of "stability"

And btw, what sort of "Leadership" has Iran evinced a desire to "shoulder"?
I mean, aside from an open & blatant desire to take over a weakened Iraq (and her oil fields) ?

...Oh, and to one of the old arguments on the Iran/Nuke topic:

"The US has nukes - why shouldn't Iran?"

Just to make sure that one's covered -

The US has hundreds-or-even-thousands of nukes and has for decades - and has, since 1945, demonstrated time and time again the overwhelming desire to never use them.

Iran seems to only want one -- and we don't have to guess why they want one, because they have said, in no uncertain terms, time-and-again what they would intend to do with it.

Mo, you have always thought that the world should show greater respect to Muslim/Arab countries -

What greater respect can be granted than taking someone at his word?

Yeah - absolutely....

This is who should be entrusted with the safety of the free world. /sarc-off

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The Future of Iraq is in Excellent Hands

If you haven't been reading Abby, you've been missing out.

I Admit To Having Wondered...

...but now I only wonder why I wondered...

So, I have a friend (shocker, I know) who alternately lives in Europe and the Middle East and is a deeply-imprinted Bush-Hater (and the shocks just keep on comin').

We were trading emails, and he started off on one of his glazed-eye jags about how 'racist' America is and how everything America does is just another "Christian Crusade Against Brown People" who, at the brass-tacks, America hates more than anything else, of course.

I replied, saying something to the effect of "Looks like you're going to have to revisit the holy meme-generator, 'cause I think that one's officially fallen by the wayside, Sparky - or ain't you been watching the news - I think even Al-Jazeera covered that one."

He went quiet for a little while, but later came back with:

"I was actually thinking about bush. He has put Obama is such a mess, that I think the first Black western president is going to prove that dark people can not rule the west. Perfect for people like you. Without a miracle , Obama doesn’t have a chance. No one does."

So there it is.

I had kind of wondered, you know, what all the screaming Leftist/Socialist/BDS-afflicted were going to do once Bush was gone?

- What would they shriek about?
- Who would they blame when their shirts came back with too much starch?
- Where would the Che-Che's go when they couldn't cry on the couch anymore?

Why. Did. I. Even. Wonder?

It's as obvious as the alternative is Unthinkable.


Throughout the (interminably long) election, Obama was heralded far & wide as the Messiah - "The One"

- HE would bring us back from the Great Dark Time of Bush

- HE would find our way back into the Good Graces of the Global Commmunity

- HE would lower the rising Oceans, heal the earth and the streets would run with Milk & Honey

People screamed and fainted at his rallies as though he were the Beatles and the Main Stream Media blatantly carried his water, flatly refusing to to allow attention to be brought to his Far-Socialist voting record in the Senate, his utter lack of experience at running anything, his life-long associations with terrorists, criminals, open racists and just-as-open America-Haters, or even his own statements advocating defeat in war, capitulation to terrorist-states, protectionist trade policies sure to damage the economy and the calculated, deliberate weakening of the United States.

- None of that mattered nor could even be spoken of - all were making ready for the GoldenAge of Obama

Oh...but now...

Now, as Obama continues to install beltway insiders, Chicago political hacks and old-school Clintonistas to his cabinet and appointment posts and only moves to expand and increase the goverment footprint...

NOW we start to hear the pro-active excuses - NOW we hear how :

"It's not his fault that he won't be able to follow-through on any of the Hype"

"Not even The One, sent from above, can hold to His Own Promises"

"He won't really be able to do any of the things he spent the past two years saying he would do."

"But it won't be his fault! The One cannot be held accountable His own failures which now must surely come - He is a higher being, and cannot be blamed!"

There will be only One Man to blame for Obama's coming failures, double-talk and broken promises...

BUUSSSHHHH!!!!1!!ONE!!
Look at that - the Obamatons will get to go right on blaming Bush - just like they always have - just as their talents are singularly suited for...

No one will even have to remake the giant paper-mache heads they like to wave at protests, or create new effigies to burn... look at the time & work efficiency of that - how convenient!

And later, when Obama's relative lack of spine or willingness to back up failed "sanctions" becomes apparent to more than JUST the Russians ...

- and Iran, knowing that it will not face retaliatory strikes from a delibately-weakened US, decides to throw someone some canned-sunshine ...

Obama will need not worry about being blamed for his own fecklessness - because the usual suspects are already, proactively, hard at work blaming "Bush" for the presidential mistakes of the coming years...

All Hail The One - coming soon to the paper-dollar, too!

Ugh.
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It Would Take Only One

Chilling article over at the Wall Street Journal about the thin line that separates us in our current state of worried comfort from medieval chaos: What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do.

Grim reality in three paragraphs:

Think about this scenario: An ordinary-looking freighter ship heading toward New York or Los Angeles launches a missile from its hull or from a canister lowered into the sea. It hits a densely populated area. A million people are incinerated. The ship is then sunk. No one claims responsibility. There is no firm evidence as to who sponsored the attack, and thus no one against whom to launch a counterstrike.

But as terrible as that scenario sounds, there is one that is worse. Let us say the freighter ship launches a nuclear-armed Shahab-3 missile off the coast of the U.S. and the missile explodes 300 miles over Chicago. The nuclear detonation in space creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

Gamma rays from the explosion, through the Compton Effect, generate three classes of disruptive electromagnetic pulses, which permanently destroy consumer electronics, the electronics in some automobiles and, most importantly, the hundreds of large transformers that distribute power throughout the U.S. All of our lights, refrigerators, water-pumping stations, TVs and radios stop running. We have no communication and no ability to provide food and water to 300 million Americans.

So, how does one prepare for the end of civilization as we know it here in the early 21st Century? I dare say no basement of canned goods, bottled water, and guns is sufficient for this grim scenario.

This article reminded me of the ABC TV movie The Day After, which aired while I was in elementary school. It left indelible images and feelings in my memory, none more memorable than the scene in which the Soviet missiles arrive:



Because of the power and reality of the film, the concentric circles of its impact were felt all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
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Fifteen Iraq war movies, three killer asteroid movies in a single year's time, and yet another alien invasion flick. Oh that Hollywood would make a movie about a real threat. Sadly, that's likely the only way to get most people to realize the gravity of the reality that we face now. Unfortunately, Hollywood got out of the "help America" business sometime ago.

Zombie: Victory in Iraq Day

The indomitable Zombie has proclaimed today...

...and we are proud to join in the celebration

By now you've probably seen the report from Michael Yon:

THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON: There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything.

We're not going to get an official event like the surrender of the Nazis after Hitler's suicide, or a signing ceremony like the one on the Missouri. And we still have forces in Japan and Germany, 60 years after World War II ended.

Per the new Status of Forces Agreement, expected to be ratified by the Iraqi Parliament next week, we'll have troops there for about three more years, gradually reducing their numbers as the Iraqi Army and Police continue to prove they are capable of maintaining order. We've already started drawing down troop levels.

Celebrate Victory in Iraq!
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Reason TV: Obama's "Enron Problem"

Former Ken Lay speechwriter Robert L. Bradley, Jr. explains what the media got wrong about Enron, and why Obama's energy policy suffers from similar flaws:

Iowahawk: Lemon

Paul A. sent us a tip about Iowahawk's latest, a look at what we can expect from the UAW Bailout:

All new for 2012, the Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition is the mandatory American car so advanced it took $100 billion and an entire Congress to design it. We started with same reliable 7-way hybrid ethanol-biodeisel-electric-clean coal-wind-solar-pedal power plant behind the base model Pelosi, but packed it with extra oomph and the sassy styling pizazz that tells the world that 1974 Detroit is back again -- with a vengeance

That's just a taste. You owe it to your funny bone to read the whole thing.

Pournelle: Republican Principles or Democrats Light?

The incomparable Jerry Pournelle examines how the Republican Party has lost its way.
While the article begins with a discussion of the Anthropogenic Global Warming hoax, it does so mostly to explain why the McCain-style "me-too" approach is a loser. Turning to the general principle:

But do note that playing loyal opposition, Democrat Light, has been effective for many Country Club Republicans: they were allowed to keep their positions and influence. That was the situation when Newt Gingrich organized the Republican takeover of Congress. Unfortunately, without Newt's iron control -- you may ascribe his motive to dedication to principle or to simple desire to keep power -- without Newt's iron control the Republican congress went mad and truly acted as if it were Democrats: it spent money in ways that even the Democrats wouldn't have (then; not now), including the old Wilson/Roosevelt interventionism that generally led to war.

Dr. Pournelle offers this advice for the future:

The only way the Republicans can survive will be to become a party of principle: smaller government, devolution of power to the states, transparency and local control; the old principle Adams stated, "we believe that each man is the best judge of his own interest". Trust the Associations (as Tocqueville described) rather than government, and states more than federal. Give up "right to life" and adopt the constitutional position that abortion ought to be left to the states -- as should education and many other matters. We have plenty of failed experiments in federal control to show that it's not always a good idea and sometimes federalizing things is disastrous.

On this matter, I offer a weak semantic disagreement with the use of the word "federal" to mean "national". What he advocates (as do I) is a return to the original meaning of "federal": power devolved to the most local level practical, where the resources it commands can be used more efficiently, and tailored to the peculiar needs of the locality. Most of what the US Government does would be better done by state, county, or municipal governments, or by private-sector entities. If the GOP is ever to be trusted with power again, it will need to make that case, and make us believe they'll actually do it this time.
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Given the choice between faux Democrats and the real thing, the voters chose the latter. We need to give them a real choice.

I call BS

Some 691,000 children went hungry in the U.S. sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year's sharp economic downtown, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

If by sometime you mean there were no Pop Tarts in the cupboard this morning. I'll cop to that.

If by struggling you mean, "What? I have to do something for food?" I'd believe that too.

With the plethora of government, private, and religious organizations in this country, if you or your kids go to bed hungry tonight...
It's your own damn fault.

Chump?

Let no one consider us partisans When someone is right, they're right. Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD7) asks a relevant, if rhetorical, question:

Maybe the name "Kashkari" is a subliminal suggestion.

We Have the Best Commenters Pt. 3

"I’m still too pissed off to write much."

And yet, he does.

Any blog with a picture of Inigo Montoya on the sidebar deserves a thumbs up, IMHO.

Wherein McCain proves our doubts correct

Last February I wrote a long post asking if Sen. John McCain was stupid or insane, because those were the only explanations I could come up with for his behavior over the years. I asked "Why does a man go out of his way to make enemies out of friends?"

It took a lot to get me to futilely pull the lever for McCain. And now I regret that I even did that.

McCain's "anonymous" trashing of Sarah Palin in the press is beyond contempt. For years McCain has been happy to thumb out the eyes of his supporters, while "reaching out" to his enemies. This is only the latest, and best defined example.

John McCain, you are a sorry excuse for a man.

Multiculturalism Drops the Mask

The council of Caerphilly, Wales has instructed municipal employees to avoid using the word "British":

The idea of “British” implies a false sense of unity – many Scots, Welsh and Irish resist being called British and the land denoted by the term contains a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions.

The advocates for multiculturalism have admitted what many of us have known all along. The entire point of their enterprise is to divide people into ever-smaller tribes, to emphasize our differences and make them points of conflict.

A sense of identity as "British", transcending tribal identities, uniting people under the common culture of Anglo-Saxon common law, Greco-Roman natural philosophy, and Judeo-Christian ethics, fueled the United Kingdom to become the preeminent power in the world. The "American" sense of identity, on the same foundations, allowed a former British colonial possession to take her place.

The name "Britain" itself comes from "Britania", the name the Roman Empire gave the province. A famous Roman maxim is "Dividae et impera" ("Divide and conquer"). Only by being divided into petty squabbling factions can we be defeated.

Well, that explains it.

I was wondering why the internet had suddenly lost interest in the size of my pen!s after expressing such repeated concern on a daily basis.
The Washington Post

The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide dropped drastically today after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations allegedy engaged in spam activity was taken offline, according to security firms that monitor spam distribution online.

Good Question

Air Wars: Revenge of the Plumber

We told you the day before the election about the unhinged rant against "Joe the Plumber" by San Francisco talk jock Karel Bouley. Now comes some good news [H/T Political Byline] : He's lost his radio job. Of course the Examiner has Bouley as the victim:

"They silence the most prominent gay voice in the Bay, right as Prop 8 passes. How lovely," said Karel in an email.

How reflexively he plays the homophobia card! There simply can be no other explanation for his dismissal in his mind; his homosexuality innoculates him against any responsibility for his performance.

To hear him tell it, it's all the engineer's fault:

In his defense, Karel says that he was told by the engineer, who left the studio to use the bathroom, that his microphone was off. The engineer was also told, he says, to make sure it is off during breaks because Karel talks to his chat room during the breaks, saying things not appropriate for the air.

I am not a radio professional, but I know that it's normal for every microphone to be equipped with a "cough button", which, when pressed, takes the mike offline momentarily, no matter what the sound engineer may be doing on his board. It allows on-air talent to take responsibility for what comes out of their mouths. Just as a responsible gun user treats every gun as if it's loaded, a responsible broadcaster treats every microphone as if it's hot.

Bouley was irresponsible, and now he's unemployed. May we hope that Helen Jones-Kelley be close behind?

Tumor, Inc.

Very interesting, if somewhat dense, essay on how free market principles and Big Business' corporate interests are not the same, and why everybody confuses the two.

Call me a rube, but I don't understand this notion of a business being "too big to fail." How does this happen? As I recently wrote to a friend whose professional expertise I sought to tap for an answer: If a skyscraper was discovered to be built on sinking sand, with rotting i-beams, wouldn't it have to come down regardless of how big it was, or how many people would be put out of work due to the high number of offices it housed? Maybe the analogy is too simplistic, but I just don't understand how sheer corporate size and the variety of tentacles a company has embedded throughout our economy insulate the company from the consequences of mismanagement, unhealthy risk-taking, or an obsolete business model. Hmm . . . a large mass with complicating tentacles making removal impossible. AIG or cancer? You make the call.

Ah, Hell...

Just a taste of what's to come...

Nuthin' but class from The One. (H/T-Drudge)

"Just hours after President Bush and President-elect Obama met in the Oval Office of the White House, details of their confidential conversation began leaking out to the press, igniting anger from the president, sources claim."

The ASSOCIATED PRESS quickly followed with details of the conversation, citing "aides who described the discussion on grounds of anonymity, citing the private nature of the meeting."

If they didn't KNOW that they were wrong to leak details of a PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFING, they wouldn't have insisted on anonymity, now would they?

I don't know which would be worse - The One not knowing who on his staff would go straight to the press by now - or The One knowing who on his staff would go straight to the press.....

I find myself disliking this guy a little more every day.

- MuscleDaddy

Thank You

UPDATE [The Monster] From time to time, people have noticed that Google has strange criteria for which days deserve a special graphic. This is today's: