I'm the village idiot, I don't have anything to do with this pathetic little opera, I just felt like passing through!
Smittie So now, instead of the President — whom they also call the Commander-in-Chief [note: corrected the term which is a bit embarrassing given that I am in the military and should have known better] — fighting the war, we’re going to try fighting it from Congress instead. War by committee. This ought to be great. … Read more
Darwin Awards each year celebrates stupidity by awarding those who kill themselves doing something stupid. The more stupid, the higher the award. The gentleman in this story didn’t manage to kill himself. Thus, he does not yet qualify for consideration in this year’s awards. However, it seems certain that he will not die of old … Read more
Why Do So Few People Vote in the U.S.? According to this article the United States lags behind just about everyone else in voter turn out. Even Iraq, where we are supposedly failing to build a democracy, voter turn out is higher than in the US. I have to admit that in past years I’ve … Read more
I didn’t see this in the mainstream media. This is a letter from the mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq, thanking the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment for liberating his town from the control of Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. I got to know some of the guys from the 3rd ACR while I was in Kuwait. … Read more
Everyone is getting all spun up over Rush Limbaugh’s response to the Michael J. Fox commercial supporting a Democratic candidate. To my mind, this is a little bit like getting spun up over something that Howard Stern says. Limbaugh has positioned himself as a conservative shock commentator. Making brash, rude comments is a fundamental part … Read more
Every once in a while, a direct mail campaign works on me. Which is, I suppose, why we have junk mail in all it’s nastiness. 1% of the direct mail actually works. yourmusic.com is pretty cool. There are probably other similar services out there but this is the first one I’ve become aware of. The … Read more
There are three stories that I stumbled across today that I thought are very relevant given the coming election. —–—– This article illustrates one of the major issues today. We have seen all over the media this number of 665,000 Iraqi civilian casualties. Many of us only read the headline. If the headline agrees with … Read more
Phillip Carter, writing for Slate Magazine, provides candid criticism of current policy in Iraq based on his service there (click here for article). More significant is the fact that Mr. Carter also offers some real suggestions on how it might be done correctly. Real solutions in Iraq will require greater commitment of resources and increased … Read more
“The Company” (Robert Littell) Some years ago my wife bought me a gift certificate at Audible.com. The certificate was good for three books. Interestingly enough, it literally meant, three books. I was able to buy books far beyond the cost of the gift certificate itself. The process has since changed at Audible.com. You can’t do … Read more
Had an interesting conversation with a co-worker this afternoon. He told me that Donald Rumsfeld had said that “we are not in Iraq to engage in nation-building…” Ben’s use of the quote is slightly misleading. The complete statement was, “We are not in Iraq to engage in nation-building — our mission is to help Iraqis … Read more