Well, it now appears that Blogger has gotten their server problems reined in - a little, at least...

I'm watching SkyNews LIVE coverage and commentary of some tanks attacking a position in a building where one or two squads of Saddam supporters have apparently decided to commit "suicide-by-tank". Here's a hint to all you people who have never seen combat outside episodes of "Band of Brothers": Stashing yourself in a tower and shooting at the tank will limit your lifespan to exactly as long as it takes for the people in the tank to pinpoint your position, plus travel time for the shell.

Can you imagine this kind of coverage in Vietnam? Panama? The Falkland Islands? Omaha Beach?

All I can say is "Wow". That, and "G'nite!"

I'm going to go to bed and cuddle with the missus...

Apparently no one can actually get through to this page, so if you do happen to read these comments, would you take the time to drop me a line, and just tell me how the page appears to you? I'm trying to trace the problem down, and it requires a software check. I mentioned yesterday that I couldn't seem to get through, and I've tried several times today. I got some e-mail, and am poring over the HTML language line by line (despite the fact that no major changes were made to coincide with the sudden loss of access).

Somebody let me know, m'kay? Thanks...

For those of the left-wing who may have accidentally stumbled onto this page, you are advised to avert your eyes and immediately hit that 'Back' button on your browsers, because I'm about to talk about something that completely refutes one of your major arguments against this battle.

That point is that we're going in to kill Iraqi civilians. Those very same civilians who voted (with a 100% turnout, and a 99.97% approval rating) to re-elect Saddam. Well, podnuhs, it ain'ta gonna happen that way. The dancing in the streets has begun.

I just saw video of a Marine who was tearing down a poster of Saddam, and some young Iraqi jumped up next to him, and gleefully pounded the image of Saddam in the face with a sandal, he turned around, saw the camera, grinned, and hit Saddam again...

Women have been weeping and laughing in the streets, hugging the US & British soldiers. Men gather around, grinning so big that you'd think their heads would topple off backwards, fighting over the chance to shake the hands of the somewhat bashful Marines. Children gather around hoping for a piece of the almost inevitable chocolate bars that someone always has around for moments like these.

Iraqi soldiers, who had been trying to pre-emptively surrender for several days prior to the start of the action, are surrendering in numbers greater than the military police can keep up with. They're complaining that their officers had run away, so they figure that it's okay for them to give up, too, besides, (as one of them put it) this is "a technological war that we cannot win."

Whole regiments are capitulating, and rumors are now floating that Saddam may have been injured or even killed in that precision strike Wednesday evening/Thursday morning. Uday's closest adviser (one of the top ten people in the government) is apparently trying to defect to Kuwait.

There have been only five American casualties, and only one of those has been due to enemy action. The other four perished (along with eight of our British allies) in a tragic helicopter accident in Kuwait. My deepest sympathies go out to all of their families, along with my prayers.

So, now that we have proof that Saddam had illegal weapons systems (which they denied ever having), and he has actually used them against our troops, and that we have proof that Saddam intended to blow up the oil pumping facilities (which would have spilled hundreds of thousands of barrels per day directly into the Persian Gulf ecosystem), and I'm just as certain once we make it as far as Baghdad, we will have all the proof we need of Saddam children's prisons, torture cells, and the kind of tales of nastiness to make Torquemada shiver with glee.

Okay, liberals, you can open your eyes now... All the nasty ol' truth has passed...

Well, the first town has been liberated, and the Iraqis are rising up killing thousands of our troops in an attempt to support their Glorious Leader, the beloved President Saddam Hussein... No, wait, that's not what happened... They were actually cheering as we tore down the images of Saddam Who's-Sane, and asking us for food!! (I'd bet my last dollar that urgent efforts were made to deliver a shipment of food and medical supplies to this town...)

Damned skippy!! And it only serves to show that things are going to get immeasurably better in the weeks and months and years to come. This one will last well into the next generation, dealing with Iran, North Korea, Syria, Palestine, and Shoddy Arabia. Yes, Saudi Arabia. They may claim they're allied with us, but Americans have a much longer memory than they think. "Remember the Alamo!" is part of our culture, and I have just one thing to say to the Saudi Kingdom...

15 of the 19. We will never forget.

Your time is coming.

For some reason, I can make new posts, and I can update and edit those posts, I just can't see those posts.

I haven't been able to see this page, yet today. I get the banner ads at the top, and I get the background color, but that's where the download stops. Hitting 'Refresh' simply changes the f*cking banner!

Trust me folks, as soon as I can scrape together the money, I'm movin' on up, just like George and 'Weezy' did.

If anyone has about $60 just lying around, and want to contribute to a good cause, may I recommend that you give it to the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund? (Hah! You thought I was gonna ask that you give it to me didn't you? ) Seriously, that fund sponsors college tuitions for the children of Marines who are killed in combat, and is one of the finest charities I know of. (Even better than the Red Cross, IMHO...)

I wouldn't do that to you. I want to be able to handle this on my own. Of course, once I get it up and running and you want to leave a tip, that's something else entirely, because that would be a strictly voluntary thing. Unfortunately, that means I'm still stuck with this pig of a server.

Soon, though... Soon.

"Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part, and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live." - Robert Heinlein

So we have at least three different instances of Saddam using weapons on Allied troops that he denied ever having. I wonder if anyone is going to point this out to those Pro-Saddam apologist appeaseniks celebrities and liberal policy wonks who said that we should "let the inspections work". At least two different weapons systems (that have been proscribed by UNSC Resolutions since the end of the first phase of this War) in evidence, but without (as of this writing) any luck in killing any of our troops.

I also mentioned to my wife last night that Saddam was going to be claiming that we missed his palace and hit some civilian buildings instead. Well, I was right. (Scroll down to the sub-header "One Killed", and read the next few paragraphs.)

His time is coming, and it is measured in hours, not days. God Bless Our Troops. Go get him, guys!

I apologize for the paucity of my posts today, but I've been catching up on some muchly needed sleep, since I haven't been getting much the past few days. Plus, this is the third time I've tried to make an entry into Blogger. Every time I hit the "Return" key, my computer freezes, so this will be short.

I'm using HTML "paragraph tags" to force a carriage return, without actually hitting that key, so check out a few of the links in my BlogRoll, play a few games, keep your eyes on the news (which is what I'm doing), and pray. I'll be back in a few hours with some thoughts on this matter...

But first...

Hey, Saddam, you crossbred son of a union arranged on credit, you whose father (if your pig of a mother - who is very well known in the marketplace - can remember him) was a motherless ape, I put a curse on your mustache! May the Jews and Zionists be the first to capture you, and give you to their women to pull out that lice-ridden tangle of dingleberries, one at a time!!

Why don't you just pick a street corner, and stand there until American troops show up? If you are so certain that you are right, and that Allah is backing your fight, then back up those words with actions. Shit, I can come up with a list of about half a billion people that would love a chance to take you on, man-to-coward, and that's without even including the likes of Tom Daschle (D-Tikrit), Teddy Kennedy (D-Alcohol Senility), Nancy Pelosi (D-Berkeley), Janet Reno (D-oh!), Martin Sheen (whose great-uncle was an Irish terrorist), Susan Sarandon (whose mother has almost disowned her for those liberal views), the Dixie Chicks (who are just starting to realize that country music fans are fairly patriotic), and Barbra Streisand (who thinks that you should be allowed to live in your Teheran home in peace).

That also doesn't include that feckless, faithless, worthless piece of crap Jacqueline Chiraq. But he's been in your back pocket for the last 25 years anyway, so you know that you could run to him in an emergency, and he got your back, but he compromised his status. He had to go too far, and now everyone knows precisely whose lips have been surgically stapled to your gluteus maximus. Germany's Schroder doesn't count, he was still enamored with the thought of taking over France without actually losing (or even using) any troops.

See what you guys did? You got me to rant anyway... LOL

I'll be back later.

Something seems to be emerging as the common theme in the web logs ("blogs") I have seen that seems to waver back and forth between this being a war of liberation and this being a war of disarmament.

This is actually neither. This is a battle in a larger war. This is the second step in the world-wide War on Terrorism. (The first was in Afghanistan, and while it may not be front-page material, military patrols, bombing raids, and assaults are still occurring, including a strike by about a thousand soldiers of the 82nd Airborne in northern Afghanistan just moments after the strikes in Baghdad.)

Steven den Beste reminded me that our first action after Pearl Harbor was the declaration of War against Japan, followed by a similar declaration against the Third Reich. But we didn't immediately start bombing Berlin. We invaded Morocco. We did that as the first step in an overall campaign, even though Morocco had nothing to do with any military attacks against us at Pearl Harbor. It was a necessary step because we managed to crush the German forces between our boys and the British cavalry, to use North Africa as a base to launch assaults against Sicily, and from there to Italy, and... well, you get the point.

But I got to thinking... Why would we need to hazard a single one of our troops when we can completely eliminate the ability for the Iraqis to fight back even if they wanted to using just air power?

Well, I was reading one of my favorite books (I've worn out three copies), Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, and he has one recruit involved in a conversation with his sergeant-instructor, when it turns into the purpose of war in general. Highly instructive reading (and it has very little to do with the sci-fi movie, by the way), especially when Heinlein writes the question, "What's the point with a whole lot of men risking their lives with obsolete weapons when one professor type can do so much more just by pushing a button?" (Sound familiar? Look at my question a moment ago.)

He responds (through the character of the sergeant), "If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off?... Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an ax. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decision by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him... but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing... but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how - or why - he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us when and where and how. We supply the violence; other people - 'older and wiser heads', as they say - supply the control. Which is as it should be."






'Nuff Said.

The war of Iraqi liberation has begun. Explosions have been heard in Baghdad. (Updated: They were "Missile strikes against Iraqi leaders", according to White House sources.) Jets were claimed to have been seen, but it is likely that they were Tomahawk missiles.

The President is supposed to speak in about 10 minutes. Any military members who happen to read this, wherever in the world you might be serving, know that my thoughts and prayers are with you, as are those of my wife. May your personal Diety keep you safe from harm in the upcoming conflict.

I was wrong about the first strike, and I'll admit it. I don't think anyone will hold it against me...

I'd like to welcome all of the people who show up here because of my entry in the (newly discovered - at least by me) "Carnival of the Vanities", which will be hosted here early in June (or wherever the page will be in the next 10 weeks). This week CotV can be found here and while it is (usually) run from here, it's hosted in a different site every week.

While I have no assurances that they will scroll up from this week's entry (the long rant about Violence) to read this, I figure it doesn't hurt to be polite to those who do...

You guys don't mind, do you?

I'd be blogging about the war in Iraq, but others do it much better than I could, with much more reliable sources. So a joke instead:

A patrolman saw a driver speed past his position, and immediately gave chase. Pulling the man over, the policeman approached the car, and demanded the driver's license and registration.

The guy calmly replied, "I lost my license after my fifth DUI. I'll show you the registration, but don't freak out when I open the glove box, because I have a couple of guns in there. And if you search the car, you'll probably find the drugs in the back seat, and that body in the trunk."

The cop completely freaks out, and calls for serious back-up. He cuffs the guy, just to be sure, and the SWAT team shows up. As they finish searching the car, the SWAT officer comes back to the driver and the policeman who is filling out the arrest report and says, "What's wrong with you, man? There are no guns, no drugs, and no body in that car. Are you jerking us around?"

The driver indignantly says, "Yeah, I'll bet that he even told you I was speeding, too!"

Mheh...

Just a brief message of support for our troops this morning, because I have a fairly long errand that needs to be run this morning. If things go well, I should be back by lunchtime, but not before then.

I hope that Tom Daschle's (D-Vichy) "contribution" will be remembered when he runs for his next post. Perhaps not coincidentally, his Senatorial term ends just as Bush's first term does, in January 2005. Maybe time for a new change... Are you listening, South Dakotans? If you want a Democrat in that office (and it appears that you do), great, and I respect that choice, but are you really sure that you want Tom Daschle?

Anyhow, there's also a new game in the left column, Mini Golf. The best I've been able to do is a 38 (10 strokes under par) so far. Let me know if you can do better (with a screen shot picture as proof, if possible)...

Anyhow... Good morning!

Every indication is that this week's "Wednesday night dramas" on NBC is, once again, not going to be airing "The West Wing". In its place, they will be airing another episode of "Law & Order", whose main actors have been, on the whole, silent on this issue.

The main exception is the most recent addition to that cast, former Republican Senator from Tennessee (and long-time character actor) Fred D. (for Dalton) Thompson, who offered to "run for election" as "a Manhattan District Attorney against Martin Sheen's President". Thompson has also appeared in a commercial that is a direct response to Martin Sheen calling for more inspections in Iraq (a move since rejected by Bush). Thompson final sentence in that commercial was "Thank goodness we have a president with the courage to protect our country. When people ask, 'What has Saddam done to us?' I ask, 'What had the 9/11 hijackers done to us before 9/11?' "

I'm going to bed now... G'nite!

Time for This-or-That Tuesday. So let us begin...

1. Cold frosty ski slopes or warm sandy beach? The beach, mainly because COLD + WET = PAIN, at least so far as my joints are concerned.
2. Chevy or Ford? No preference. I prefer that vehicles be reliable, no matter what the company that makes it is called.
3. Mac or PC? PC - but I have an open mind about it...
4. Dial-up or high speed internet access? I'll never go back to dial-up, unless DSL just isn't an option.
5. Small *family-only* wedding or large 200+ guest wedding? Small
6. Would you rather be the bridesmaid or the bride? (if you are a guy, substitute best man or groom) I've been both, several times. But being the groom means that you're guaranteed to get lucky that night!
7. AC/DC or ABBA? Both, depending on my mood
8. Roses or daisies? Roses in the bedroom, daisies on the kitchen table
9. Trashy romance novels or classic literature? Sci-Fi and Speculative Fiction
10. NEW! Thought-provoking question of the week...If you had to choose one...would you rather be blind or deaf? Why? Just as a matter of practicality, I could handle either. My vision has been bad (20/500+ in both eyes) since I was a small child, and I lost 35dB of hearing in my left ear while in the Navy, so I have been forced to contemplate the big "what if?" for quite a while now. But if it were a matter of choice, I would prefer to be deaf, because we gain more than 90% of our knowledge of the world around us through our eyes. If Marlee Matlin can win a Best Actress Oscar, I think I could still manage to make all my standard typographical errors on this page...

Moving slowly this morning. Didn't sleep well last night. Catching up on events this morning...



My thoughts and prayers go out to our fighting men (and women) in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Eastern Mediterranean. I also want to send out my support to those currently in the area of South Korea, because you guys are also standing into harm's way.

Iraq's Representative to the UN has claimed that he will ask Syria to call an emergency session of the Security Council, seeking an official condemnation of the US and UK. Yeah, like that is gonna happen....

The UNSC passing a resolution condemning two veto powers Permanent Members, either or both of whom could vote "No", killing the motion? Especially when that same group of idiots and wafflers wouldn't pass one demanding that Saddam actually suffer for his repeated refusals to obey the resolutions of that very same Council....

I kinda hope that they'll try. I think that the US and UK should delay their votes to the very last, just to force the others to commit to their official positions, which will kill the UN with a speed and efficiency heretofore unheard of in diplomatic annals.

I think rent in NYC is going to get a little cheaper, once they have all those neat rooms that could be converted into Exclusive Luxury Condominiums over in that high security complex (security sites preplaced, with high-tech communications equipment already set up) on the East Side. I'm sure that they won't mind losing the hundreds of millions of dollars of membership dues we and the Brits give them every year, especially now that they have that vibrant economy in France to pay for the new site and building.

May the very last thing Saddam sees be something like this:



And may the last his people see of him be something like this:





Can you tell I like that Smiley Site?

Just ran across this, and I have just a single question. If Saddam (as he does in this article) were to admit that he once had weapons of mass destruction, and if (as he claims) he no longer has them, where did they go?

If Saddam had actually destroyed them, where did it happen? When? Why won't he just show us the spot? Why did he decide to remain silent about that fact when he could have grabbed international headlines by announcing it, followed by the demand that the UN sanctions be lifted? He would have made many billions of dollars in increased oil sales alone! We're not asking him to give up the tanks and fancy aircraft and stuff, just the atomic stuff and all those nasty poisons that are so awful that you keel over dead just for saying the name!!

Why does he want to make the whole world think he still has them? Why didn't he just say, "Here!!! Take the damned stuff!!! I'm sick to death of the lot of ye'!!" (Or whatever the equivalent phrase in Arabic would be...)


I know, I know... that's more than one question. But I really don't expect any of the appeaseniks "Loyal Opposition" to really answer any of them.

I found a pretty cool "Smiley" site. If you're not sure what I mean (or if you are, and just wanna go look), go look at it...

One of my favorites is this one:

There are literally hundreds of them. Go enjoy!

Kofi Annan is ordering all UN personnel out of the area, including the UN troops monitoring the DMZ between Iraq and Kuwait. I have thought about it, and I think Saddam isn't going to try and stop them, since he already has enough dumbass appeaseniks human shields (as if their white skin is going to stop a falling bomb more than the brown skins in the area - which also exposes the racist beliefs held by those idiots). If he does hold them as hostages, he risks losing all the support from the French, Russians and Germans for using unwilling hostages.

Willing hostages (those who haven't turned tail and run) are another matter.

I've also added a new game in the left column - "Blow Up Osama bin Laden". Give it a whirl, but use LOTS of "Tennessee windage" - he's a speedy little bugger...

As for the other games, if you get stuck, just drop me a line, and I'll send hints, solutions, codes (up as far as I've gotten), whatever I've got. They are fiendishly addictive, though. You have been warned! :-)

I'm feeling a little better this morning.

France is trying to spin their position into a "majority" opinion of the Security Council, while the U.S., the U.K., and Spain are repeatedly saying that there was no point in pursuing a vote, when France (without being explicitly identified, except as "a Permanent Member") has repeatedly said that they would veto any new resolution, "no matter what".

The White House says now that the "diplomatic window [on Iraq] has closed." President Bush is scheduled to address the nation at 8 pm (ET)/5 pm (PT). I wonder what he's gonna say? {/sarcasm}

My major fear is that Saddam has gotta know that he's got less than 12 hours before bombs start falling, and he'll decide to try a pre-emptive strike. He won't be successful in deterring us, but he just might get lucky and cause a few serious casualties among our troops or those of our allies. Or in grabbing a few reporters and weapons inspectors as his {sarcasm on} "personal guests". {/sarcasm}

The news is finally reporting regularly that this is not a new conflict, but that this is a resumption of hostilities from 1991. Since UNSC Resolution 687 (passed back in 1991) specifically states that this is a "cease-fire", contigent upon good behavior by Saddam (disarming, stop supporting terrorists, etc.). He hasn't followed through on that one, nor in any of the UN Resolutions passed since that time. We don't need their permission, nor their help.

France has been spending the weekend by sending its Defense Minister around the Gulf States, trying to undermine to willingness to allow us the use of their airspace, the military airbases, and the right to stage troops from their territory. That is not the act of a friend and ally. They are not just being obstructionist, they are actively attempting to block our efforts.

Anti-war activists (who are upset that the government "is not listening to the voice of the people" (despite the most recent poll which states that 71% of US respondents agree that we should go into Iraq to disarm, using force if necessary). What pisses them off is not that the government isn't listening to the people, it's that the people the government is (finally) listening to isn't them. They have threatened to mass outside financial centers, trying to obstruct business from happening. (Despite the fact that stocks, bonds and futures can be traded in the men's room of the local restaurant.) They have also threatened to invade Vandenburg AFB, here in California. What they fail to realize is that while the streets outside the Financial District may be public property (and the most they risk is a "nuisance" arrest), the grounds of any military base is Federal Property, and that the Military Police operate under very different rules, including, under many circumstances, the use of deadly force, such as to protect the base's personnel and property.

Getting arrested by the local PD (for pushing a few people around, breaking a few windows, setting a few cars on fire) will get you a record for "civil disobedience" and a little "street cred", but no really serious consequences. Getting arrested by Federal Marshals or Military Police (if they don't get their asses ventilated instead) will result in serious jailtime with some very unsavory characters.

It's going to be a busy day... So, Good morning! And a Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all...

Remember I mentioned the Pixie Stix Hicksie Pricks Dixie Chicks, and how they had shoved their foot into their mouth up to the knee? (Specifically, Natalie Maines, who is from Lubbock, Texas)

Well, the hits just keep on comin'...

Seems their former fans have decided to make their displeasure known. In large groups. The word "boycott" was mentioned. At least one concert has been cancelled.

In the words of a famous road sign, "Don't Mess With Texas". I guess that includes former Governors who now occupy the Oval Office... :-)

A young man was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to his pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do ANYTHING you want." Again the man took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess. What more do you want? Why won't you kiss me?"

The man said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."


Heh, heh...

Trust me... It's no fun when you're hurting so bad, it actually wakes you up....

I tried half of a Darvocet, followed shortly thereafter by a Tylenol III (with codeine), and nothing helped. I only got about 90 minutes of sleep before I was jolted awake. Mega-waves of hurt hit about every half hour. Imagine a toothache in all of your joints...

I don't mean to burden you guys with this, and I'm not here to beg for anything, I just find it easier to have a place to vent. It helps to keep my mind off of the situation.

In other news, I'm still not sure what this Presidential press conference on the Azores is going to be all about. He'll be meeting with the President of Spain and Tony Blair on Portuguese territory (Portugal is another of our supporters in the crisis in Iraq). So we have three of the main characters in this not-so-little drama meeting on the grounds of a fourth. UNMOVIC Inspectors have been warned to pay attention to the press conference before deciding whether or not to return to Baghdad.

Nations have been moving their civilians out of the city of Baghdad for a few weeks now, and since France has publicly boasted of the fact that they would veto any further resolutions "no matter what", it might not be just a coincidence that the original deadline suggested by the British is tomorrow.

We'e just going to have to see. In about 3 1/2 hours, near as I can tell, which makes it close to midnight in Baghdad time - the sun is going down there even as I type this.

Anyhow, I hope you're having a good morning. It's about time for the "wall of pain" to return, and I can feel my joints tuning up.