Wednesday, April 2. 2008
Thanks, Buddy.
This note came in over the transom: Saturday, March 22, 2008 Subject: MARINES' AFTER ACTION REPORT From: Dill Lt Col Jeffrey J (AAMNF RCT-5 1/7 Battalion Commander) Family and Friends of the First Team, As this is the final First Team update from Iraq, I would like to start out by thanking all of you for your endless support, generosity, and most importantly, your prayers. During our entire deployment we were nearly overwhelmed with care packages, letters, and cards from all of you and countless other Americans who just wanted us to know they supported us and our mission. After nearly five years of sustained combat operations, the American people are as supportive and generous as ever. The support, care packages, letters, and prayers were truly appreciated by every Marine, Sailor, and soldier within the TF. I must specifically thank the Battalion's Key Volunteer Network. These incredible women focused on ensuring every family was taken care of while their Marine or Sailor was deployed. Their efforts ensured we could focus on the mission here in Iraq as we knew our families were in good hands. The First Team could not have hoped for a better KVN. We are all indebted to them for all they have done for us and for our families. The past seven months have been very busy ones for your Marines and Sailors. To say I am proud of them and their accomplishments would be an incredible understatement. During this deployment they have driven in excess of 150,000 miles under the constant threat of IEDs, they executed over 12,000 mounted and dismounted combat patrols in the cities, villages, and deserts of our AO, they discovered and removed from enemy hides over 20,000 pieces of ordinance that could have been used to make hundreds of IEDs, and they detained over 200 suspected insurgents. The massive amount of pressure put on the enemy by the TF's sustained surge operations resulted in the tactical defeat of AQI and insurgent groups in our AO. While the units that preceded us certainly set the stage for our eventual success, it was the unrelenting pressure and pace of the Marines and Sailors of 1/7, coupled with the continued development and improvement of the Iraqi Police and Army, which finally broke the enemy's back. But your Marines did a lot more than combat operations, and certainly more than what they were originally trained to do. They worked with the local government officials, mayors, and city councils to improve their processes and efficiencies in running a government and showed them that public service constitutes unselfishness and at times self-sacrifice. They spent hours upon hours teaching classes on the Iraqi Rule of Law, the Iraqi Constitution, and other civic functions to local leaders, police officers, and soldiers.
Continue reading "An Iraq After Action Report"
As if to reinforce our post below, we finally learn why she was fired from the Watergate hearings. This is amazing (but not surprising), at Hot Air. Let's see whether the press is brave enough to be all over this or not. She is a sociopath, just like hubbie - but not as slick as he is. "Birds of a feather..." It's the final nail. She's done. (And I think Obama is done, too, with his Farrakhan story. Unless he tries to explain, once again, that I wouldn't understand because it's "a black thing.") Dems sure can pick 'em. I bet Chris Dodd and Joe Biden are looking pretty good to them now. Update: More on the story here.
re Hillary's lies, from Hitchins at Slate (I like that distinction between the two kinds of lies), a quote: The punishment visited on Sen. Hillary Clinton for her flagrant, hysterical, repetitive, pathological lying about her visit to Bosnia should be much heavier than it has yet been and should be exacted for much more than just the lying itself. There are two kinds of deliberate and premeditated deceit, commonly known as suggestio falsi and suppressio veri. (Neither of them is covered by the additionally lying claim of having "misspoken.") The first involves what seems to be most obvious in the present case: the putting forward of a bogus or misleading account of events. But the second, and often the more serious, means that the liar in question has also attempted to bury or to obscure something that actually is true. Let us examine how Sen. Clinton has managed to commit both of these offenses to veracity and decency and how in doing so she has rivaled, if not indeed surpassed, the disbarred and perjured hack who is her husband and tutor.
 Michelle flipped the switch - on. Speaking of meaningless but vanity-feeding gestures, a great bit from Thompson. A quote:
If not to have a discernible impact, directly or by example, what, then, is the point? What drives this level of anxiety over soft drinks and peanut butter residue? Unless much of this is indeed about seeking out pretentious guilt and then wringing one’s hands for public display and personal gratification? It’s not that I necessarily believe that my eating a KitKat is going to lead directly to the death of a baby in the developing world, or that drinking a Fanta means one more “disappeared” trade unionist, it’s more a case of knowing that if I do these things I’m letting myself down, that I’m going against the standards I’ve set for myself.
Standards that apparently serve no objective purpose, whether enacted or not. Could these ineffectual standards then be about something less tangible and more intimate? Could they perhaps be about how a person wishes to seem, to themselves, or in certain kinds of company? I don’t care what anyone else thinks of me.
But of course. What was that about unrecycled peanut butter jars? I usually just give up and throw it in the bin (as long as no one’s watching).
"Punished with a baby..."? True, changing diapers at 3 AM is an annoyance, but is that what Obama meant? Granola strikes out grittily against oppression. Jules Do jails do any good? Betsy The Prophet's pedophilia banned in the Netherlands. If I were a holy prophet, I wouldn't want that advertised either. A note to Alice Walker, from Phyllis Chesler Mugabe is gone! Who'd a thunk it? The rising price of biofuels How to lie with statistics, Swiss style. See how they selected 1961 as their index for the second graph? It's in the fine print. McCain in his own briar patch. Am. Thinker. McCain has been wrong about a few things, but McCain-Feingold has been the worst. As has been widely noted, that law limits the individual's political speech - but not the political speech of media (and, thus far, not the political speech of blogs and websites). It's nuts. I thought Villainous Company was on hiatus, or had retired. I guess not. She has a good piece up about "conversations on race." (h/t, Anchoress) Roger's snaggle-tooth blood-pudding eaters piece (below) effectively fisked the newspaper article. The photos were worthy of Pallywood, and they ignored the aggressive efforts over the past few years of the Dept. of Agriculture to expand the food stamp program.
Tuesday, April 1. 2008
I'm being silly, of course. The feckless Stilton scarfers are actually looking down their aquiline bluenoses at us. The Independent, which is a sort of digital newspaper for wrapping your crappy online fish and chips, says in the Headline: USA 2008 The Great Depression. They've even got the requisite breadline picture: 
Woe is us, huh? Here's the accompanying text. Warning! Englishmen don't know how to pluralize things properly. You know, not like Americans, who are important people, and not doily-fetished tea-slurpers. Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.
The increase – from 26.5 million in 2007 – is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards. But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an economy that is suddenly beset by troubles. Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add to the squeeze.
Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story. Yes, and after all, "telling a story" is exactly what you're attempting to do. You're just not very good at it. But I want to be kind to our friends on that miserable pile of rocks and coal across the pond. I think it's swell that they've taken time from their busy schedule of crushing each other to death against fences at soccer games, throwing up on themselves in the gutter outside pubs, and surrendering to imams to pay any attention to our festering hive of poverty and depravity here in the States. I especially like the fellow that's the centerpiece of their pieta of poverty there in the picture. Let's zoom in on him, shall we? 
You see, in the thumbnail view of the picture, the noble Bob Cratchit figure is holding his poverty-numbed fingers in the universal sign for "Please sir, can I have some more porridge?" It's a shame to ruin it by showing him in closeup, fiddling with his MP3 player to get just the right mix, and shod in elaborate, new, expensive footwear and clothes. Because what we're looking at here, is indeed a line of people who are willing to stand in a line to get free stuff. You're right there, Percival. Unfortunately for you Someone at the National Review Online read the caption on the image you used, and it reads: NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: People wait on line to receive donated coats at the kickoff of the 17th annual New York Cares Coat Drive a the Bowery Mission November 30, 2005 in New York City. Bloomberg helped give out coats to residents of the Mission and the coat drive hopes to collect and distribute 80,000 coats to needy New Yorkers by New Years. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
But your point is made, even if fraudulently. Very truthy, Cedric. People are lining up virtually, if not physically, for free food coupons, which you inartfully mention later in your article can be illegally sold to unscrupulous people for seventy cents on the dollar to buy drugs and booze and... well... I don't know, maybe MP3 players. I might mention that this isn't much of a line in a big, strapping adult country like the United States. It might impress you over there in that little dollop of dirt you live on, the remaining wreckage of your "Empire." Do you guys even get to lord it over Scotland anymore? You guys shed power and influence like dandruff, I can't keep up. But let me assure you that if that was a line to get free Hannah Montana tickets, that line would reach to New Jersey. You remember New Jersey, don't you? We beat your inbred monarch-ass-kissing fruity wig-wearing generals like a drum there in the 1700s. With guns we used to shoot squirrels with. But I digress. After all, it's not fair to compare Hannah Montana tickets to Food Stamps, as Hannah Montana is more important than food to a teenage girl. And Hannah Montana is bigger than the Gross Domestic Product of Great Britain. But then again, what isn't around here? In the article, those Malvinas-pestering cold-water-flat-loving hollow-chested Britishers refer to everybody in the picture as "disadvantaged Americans." Fair enough. I'll use their criteria: that queuing citizens trying to get free stuff from the government is a sign of an apocalyptic breakdown of a whole society. Hey, Alfies: 100% of the population of Great Britain gets in line to get their chit to see a doctor. So by your reckoning, your entire country has collapsed. And it's been collapsed since 1948, if you go by the National Health Service. You know, right after we saved you the trouble and expense of German lessons. I was always enchanted when I was a lad to read compelling news stories of daring Britishers swimming the English Channel. Shame you just end up in France, though. Nothing to do there but warm your hands over the burning cars. So I have some advice, you crumpet nibblers. Swim west from now on. You might like it here. I bet the NHS doesn't hand out MP3 players with the calendar you get to plot your wait times for your medical care.
A remarkable short video. Who knew where penguins really spend the winter?
In the WSJ, Peggy Noonan begins thus: I think we've reached a signal point in the campaign. This is the point where, with Hillary Clinton, either you get it or you don't. There's no dodging now. You either understand the problem with her candidacy, or you don't. You either understand who she is, or not. And if you don't, after 16 years of watching Clintonian dramas, you probably never will.
Read the whole thing, which I think sums it all up.
 Link to Maggie's Farm or we will drown these puppies. (Thanks to Sipp for this brilliant blog marketing concept from his I'm the only serial killer in MA)
"I'm just so sick of this world, and Obama can fix it." Cinnamon. Also, Obama busted. What the clean energy scam is doing to Brazil. Heartbreaking Media "selling us on fear and recession for years now." Speaking of which, The Independent declares with glee: US heading for a great depression. That is ridiculous, but schadenfreude sells papers. Speaking of schadenfreude, Leftists claim that the GOP coalition is terminally broken. Our friend Right Wing Prof takes a look. Something in Rick Moran wants to walk away from Iraq. And something else in him doesn't. As Never Yet Melted notes, nobody is saying about Europe, "After 60 years they still can't stand up for themselves." I hope we will still have troops in Iraq in 10 years. Tiger has a good take on the Basra deal. Zimbabwe "election" update: The Independent (h/t, Norm) "Poll shock: America not like Hollywood." Steyn Crime update, in the UK A quote from the always-interesting Mediocracy: The idea that we should seek to equalise outcomes between the "highly motivated" and the "less well motivated" is interesting. It suggests that giving everyone the chance to do well means (in the minds of people like Baroness Blackstone) neutering "doing well" to the point where everyone does well, regardless. Demanding that all universities have resources "concentrated" on them, across the board, is equally vacuous.
Man-made global black holes: Be very afraid. Al Gore should take this crisis on: The End of the World Picking a VP for McCain. Blackburn? (h/t, Insty)
Monday, March 31. 2008
 Michael Yon's book is out. This is the least we can do for that good guy.
You can buy it here.
Libertarian Leanings has a good summary of yesterday's events. A turning point? Now Al Sadr rips Iran. It is a difficult thing to deal rationally with rabid barbarians.
 Surrender by Al Sadr. This kind of thing might explain why.
Global warming is making people crazy? Unbelievable. (h/t, Carnival of the Insanities) "Hillary flings dirt but it sticks to her." Sullivan. Also, "Obama didn't go to law school for nothing." neoneo/ Also, "Barack Obama: Our new appeaser." Michael Goodwin Bobby Jindal update. Blue Crab How over-rated is John Steinbeck? NY Review of Books Farm Scams. Conspiracy: Whatever you want to say about the sharpies on Wall Street, they are pikers compared to Max's and Chuck's friends down on the farm when it comes to picking the pockets of taxpayers and consumers, or concocting a system in which the farmers get all the gains while the government assumes most of the risk.
From a letter to the editor by Don Boudreaux: So I commend you on your "Earth Hour" effort. Persuading people across the globe to turn off lights for one hour supplies the perfect symbol for modern environmentalism: a collective effort to return humankind to the dark ages.
Sunday, March 30. 2008
 Could any magazine come closer to Maggie's Farm's interests? It's time for another free plug for Garden & Gun - 21st Century Southern America. One blogger snarked the magazine - until she read it.
Two candidates who missed a generation. Barone Borat is gone. Now it's Bruno, in Kansas. (h/t, Althouse). Cohen has fun with life, doesn't he? How to turn a bread basket into a basket case in ten easy steps. It's not Malthusian - it's another socialist train wreck. How to retire cash-rich. Dr. Helen. I don't want to retire cash rich: I'd rather be cash-rich now. Plus I have no intention of ever retiring. Retirement seems like a foolish goal to me, but sometimes it is forced upon one. If one has Yankee values, one turns leisure into effort anyway. Cell-phones dangerous? I don't believe it. I rarely use mine, though. I thought he hated "middle classism" Jail Camp. The new American vacation An economic stimulus policy for the inner city. SDA  Cowboy deaths, in order of descending dignity
World's second-largest oil reserves. Canada Condy on race. Powerline The Bosnia tall tale flap is a proxy for all the Clinton lies John Dean said: "Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?" Driscoll notes: McCain, by the way, has been awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals, a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Photo: One of my wren houses. Those shrubberies are a tall variety of smooth Ilex as an unkempt wind-breaking hedge.
Saturday, March 29. 2008
 Yes, it's another Home Depot morning for me. Black Forest mulch and other stuff.
Political monoculture in the academy. Tiger FITNA is spreading virally. Larry Kudlow said today, on the radio, that the Obamas have no retirement plans or savings. They have no investments either, other than real estate, despite making well over a million a year for a while and making de minimus charitable contributions. What's up with that? The UN's farcical Human Rights Council The Chronicle of Higher Ed wondered how university presidents do compared to others: CEO of S&P 500 company—$8.5-million
NBA player—$4-million
College football coach (NCAA Division I)—$1-million
Neurosurgeon—$530,000
President of public research university—$397,000
U.S. Senator—$162,500
NASA astronaut (top pay grade)—$130,000
Reporter—$42,000
The neo-Malthusians in the environmental movement religion. I learned a new word today, in relation to that: "cornucopians." I guess I tend to be one of those - although I would guess that the human race would be better off achieving a sustained human population rather than continued growth. The checkout lines at Costco are too long as it is. Let them eat cell phones. Opie tells me that this essay pretty much captures her view of the Iraq war: Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials. At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war. Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies. France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia. Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe. America’s only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel. The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks, because they didn’t have guns, and cars with “tank” painted on the doors, because they didn’t have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor. Read the rest on continuation page below -
Continue reading "A few Saturday Links"
Friday, March 28. 2008
 Last skiing trip of the year. Leaving tonight for Killington. Looks like excellent snow conditions. Will leave you with these:
Yard Sale of the Century. US Equities. The average bear market lasts 10 months. We're roughly at month 6. Exurban Existentialism for Bozos, with a nod to our friend Sippican. Brave, brave Sir Robin. No Pasaran Incomes up, inflation moderates. Here. Warren Buffet invests like a girl. h/t, Wall St. Fighter Is Mitt a good VP choice? I didn't know that being an inner-city pastor was such a good gig. White UCC pastors don't live like that. Speaking of Rev. Wright, is it racist to quote him? The will to power. Stumbling. As regular Maggie's readers know, we believe that people who want power are insane. From Betsy: Michael Medved notices that people seem to be personally content with their own situation while pessimistic about the country at large.
Her? She is one of Theo's gals. Hope to find her skiing.
Even if you are faking it for a photo op, you might have the presence of mind to get the phone right. On the other hand, maybe the younger generation doesn't know how to use a land line. (OK, maybe it's photoshopped. The truth, these days, is getting harder and harder to discern...not that it was ever easy.) 
 Obama doesn't like the "You're on your own society." But he's on his own, despite his wife's absurd complaints about their million dollar annual income. Does he think I am a child? Related: His wife thinks I am ignorant. Me?
Has religion become a political wedge issue? First Things. The Clear Channel story is becoming a good legal soap opera. Already, a Judge takes a stand. "At the consideration of our comparative insignificance." Sissy. It's about warming - and larger topics. The return of the Mercedes Benz of Peace The pressure politicians feel to "Do Something!" The Law Prof on the subprime mess. Uranium found in the hands of our Lefty South American friends. Dangerous buffoons. More evidence that Dems do not donate, Repubs do - regardless of income. Blue Crab. Exposure to Western ways makes Moslems more hateful. The corner I do not smoke pot, but criminalizing it is ridiculous and expensive. If people want to be potheads, fine. Let them be lazy bozos, but just don't make me pay their bills. My opinion on Obama's race speech: Condescending to white folks. We aren't stupid, and we aren't racist - and we are sick of "conversations about race." If black folks want to join Team America, then somebody like Obama ought to tell them how to do it, because he joined it, like so many fine black folks I know.
Thursday, March 27. 2008
E-mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other municipality. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address. Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all this type of e-mail is, is to get names and "cookie" tracking info for telemarketers and spammers to validate active e-mail accounts for their own purposes. Any time you see an e-mail that says forward this on to "10" of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get good luck, or what ever, it has either an e-mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails of those folks you forward to, or the host sender is getting a copy. Each time it gets forwarded, then the origination is able to get lists of "active" e-mails to use in spam e-mails, or sell to others that do. (If you have been sending out the above kinds of email, now you know why you get so much spam!) More on E-petitions at Snopes.
 Elephant with camera. Wonderful stuff.
The geezer acts like a normal person. McCain. More on McCain's speech and the "league of democracies." Hillary's List of Lies. Dick Morris Moronic reporters. Even I know that Blackwater Fever is malaria. The Mahdi "Army" is back in business. How is the MSM reporting this? Pat Dollard's war on Hollywood Pregnant man. He is very happy. Chavez "endorses" Obama. Busted: Ivy League hos in trouble in NYC. 10,000 names on file - their client list could make for good entertainment. These gals aren't hos - they are courtesans. Homo antecessor in Europe 1.3 million years ago Calmly rational as always, Neoneo on autism If Dems had a good candidate, GOP would be toast. Are biofuels to blame for rising food costs? Same topic: Let them eat Ethanol. Why don't they call it alcohol? Sharper Image goes bust. Making a perfect macaroon for The Century Club Take time to grow up a little between college and grad school Leftist churches set a time bomb for the Dems Marriage in the UK, quoted in full from Insty: NO MARRIAGE, PLEASE, We're British: "The number of Britons tying the knot has collapsed to a record low, it has emerged. The proportion of men and women getting married is below any level found since figures were first kept nearly 150 years ago. . . . The evidence that marriage is withering away at an increasing pace was met with a furious response from critics of Labour's benefits system, which disregards the status of husbands and wives and pays parents extra to stay single." Well, that's certainly going to produce the ideal society.
Wednesday, March 26. 2008
 World's tallest man gets custom car.
A Dem wonders why nobody tells Hillary to quit. The Obama's tax returns. The Corner If politics is about branding, then what car are they? The joy of free markets. Coyote What feminism has descended to. A new book: Slavery, Terrorism, and Islam Can't Make This Stuff Up Department. The National White Privilege Conference Are the successful living too long? About that ice shelf. Castle Eli Lake at the NY Sun bothered to study the Saddam and Terrorism report. (h/t Anchoress). That's what we need full-time reporters for.
A reader checked out the the main real-time link that follows the Argo buoys and their data. Definitely cool.
Tuesday, March 25. 2008
 I will be wending my way after work today to Rudy's Bar & Grill under heavy sniper fire. Pray for me.
Speaking of Clinton lies, At least she didn't claim to be in Cambodia McCain gives good straight talk on mortgages A good example of why the Dems lept at the chance to abandon Hillary. Also, David Brooks on Hillary's Long Defeat. It's true: you can't keep your eyes off a traffic accident. Also, What's worse - racist or sexist? Classical Values A close call. Back from the brain dead. Suburbs in decline. Boston Review Separate and unequal at Harvard. Hoist on their own dumb PC petard. NYT lied, frogs died. Can't the MSM get it into their heads that there is no significant global warming? It's a model, not a fact. But lies are stubborn things. Time is ripe for the Iraqis to kill Al Sadr Want to join the Hour of Power? What next? Does Gov. Paterson have a bad case of TMI ? Our occasional commenter Mr. Snitch gets it about the Dem race. ...I think. From what I can tell, that race is over. You can be very dead long before the Doc writes the death certificate. Unbelievable. The Massachusetts-Chavez connection. h/t, Insty Photo: McSorley's Ale House, 1937
It's almost a moot point in Cuba because few can afford computers, much less internet connections, but Babalu noted the blog blockade in the People's Paradise - and now Reuters is running the story. I wonder whether they can read Maggie's in Cuba.
h/t, Theo 
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