Prayer Posse, Forward, Ho!

Seems that Rush Limbaugh was taken to the hospital in Hawaii this afternoon with chest pains. When last I heard his condition was listed as serious, of course it's that with anything from heartburn to a major heart attack.

I understand the lefties are rejoicing with this news, lefties love death. Everywhere there are lefties there is the cry for more death, from abortion to offing the elderly.

Of course, it's too late for the lefties to celebrate, Rush blazed the trail for conservative talkers, now they are legion. It was Rush who gave me the courage to become a Republican Precinct Chair and who helped me put into words the philosophy I'd had for some time.

So, prayers up from Texas. Please add yours.

The Christmas Trip And The Vicious Killer Attack Chihuahua

So Christmas Eve we got a bit of snow and sleet and it got bitter cold. Well, perhaps not Wisconsin bitter cold but certainly Texas bitter cold. We were worried that we might not get to travel but the majority of the snow and ice just barely missed us.

So, we got up and loaded the car with about twelve bazillion presents and nine metric tons of backed goods and away we went. The ice and snow had come from the west, heading northeast. It barely grazed us but was thicker and thicker as we went toward Dallas and it's northern suburbs. The good news about that is the road and bridge sanding gets more effective the closer to town, too.

That's a drawback to being out here, we have three and a half miles until we get to where there is even a try at making the roads passable, in an ice storm, we're home until it thaws a little. The good news is we don't hardly want to go nowhere.

So, this Christmas outing was to my son in laws father's house where we were eating Christmas dinner and opening some few gifts. I don't do mornings well, morning is time to go to bed so this year it was decided I could skip the main XMAS morning gift opening. I wasn't consulted on this decision, seems as I am a bit too grumpy when I don't get my sleep.

So, anyway, we went from the Valley of the Sabine River, over Lake Tawakoni, into the Valley of the Trinity and over Lake Ray Hubbard, around one edge of Dallas and up to the house.

It is remarkable how easy it is to travel, it wasn't very long ago that it would have been a week's trip, fording the rivers by buckboard wagon, stopping to clear downed trees from the trail, fighting the swamps of those rivers. I was born and traveling before the Interstate system was a going thing, albeit in the back seat while the parents drove. And THEY used to talk about how easy it was now that the roads were paved! It's so easy to forget how far we've come and how fast.

So, there isn't much to say, other than the pictures. The grandkids were happy.

Bill and Lela, Den's folks, have this little bitty Chihuahua that I thought I had made friends with. Then she was trying to get up on the couch where I was sitting and I pretended she was one of the Pugs. So I grabbed her by the loose skin on her back and went to pull her up, just like the Pugs, and she cried, real loud. I let go and she ran away.

So, a little later I tried to tell this dog I was sorry with a good ear scritch, that's when she attacked! The next thing I knew my thumb was bleeding. So, she was little? So, those itty bitty fangs are sharp! Due to the blod thinner I've been on since my stroke, I bled like a stuck pig for a while before it clotted up. I did not call animal control for I had brought it on myself. For Bill and lela's sake I hope that little beast hasn't decided she loves the taste of blood.

So, a while later we left and wended our way back home, we wanted to get home before all the melted ice refroze and the roads slicked up with black ice.

The next day I took some of Linda Lou's blueberry cheesecake, cinnamon rolls and a few slices of nut bread next door to my neighbors. He is a month out of surgery for a cancerous gland, I know which one but the name escapes me right now, the one that tells us to make and release Insulin. Anyhow, they romoved it and now he has to take insulin after meals, I'm not positive sending loads of sugar is such a great idea but they seemed to like it. I reckon it's not so bad, just increase the dose of insulin, right? Of course, Linda Lou's cheesecake, they might have to shoot the inulin in with a needle the size of a firehose.

Oh well, that was out holiday. Everyone was safe and sound except my thumb and that's my fault. Anyhow I got a new red flannel shirt for Christmas, like it?

The System Worked!

So, this 23 year old Nigerian smuggled a bomb onto a jetliner heading for Detroit. When he got to Amsterdam he had to deplane and fool around the airport, got back onto the jetliner without a passport but with a bomb. The Netherlands will not, for some reason, allow US Air Marshalls to get on airplanes, even US airplanes but they do allow people to get on with bombs in their underwear. Well, it's the Netherlands and he had the bomb taped to his nether regions so I guess it makes sense.

Question for Janet and Obama: If the Netherlands will not allow United States law officers to get onto United States aircraft in their airports, why are we allowing flights from those airports? Seems simple enough, don't let our Air Marshalls onto planes from your airports, fine, no flights from those airports. That doesn't sound like rocket surgery or brain science, you'd think even a politician would be able to figure it out. What other countries do not allow our Air Marshalls to fly on our airplanes? And why? This may well go back to the Bush, or even the Clinton years, we've had the Air Marshall program for a long time although it was more or less dormant since the lull in hijacking after the take this plane to Cuba craze in the late '60s, early '70s. But, why haven't we heard of it? Why have our government types, who are supposed to work for us, been squawking about it?

Another question for Janet: Where does it say that "the system" works when the only reason flaming wreckage didn't plow through downtown Detroit is because the bomb, although lit, only burned instead of exploded? Ms. Napolitano, that is not exactly a very dependable system you have. What is the system, to allow only incompetent bombers onto the planes? What is the test? I'm told that the explosive used, PETN is very powerful and needs only to be dry to have that amount blow a jet in half. So, what is the system, give the bomber so many free drinks that he pees his pants?

Okay, I have to admit here that if I was a bomber, using my weenie as a fuse might well make me pee my pants, too but I'm not sure this is persactly the most dependable system. A system that might work just a tad better is to not let anyone who is on a watch list on the effing airplane. A system that might make a little better sense is to copy, exactly, the system that El Al Israel uses. It is true that Israel is over run with socialists but we don't see dweebs like Napolitano making total idiots of themselves on one show after another.

I always figured that leftists aren't exactly the brightest of God's little door prizes but American leftists are really stupid. I give you exhibit A: the United States of America with a capitalist system where our working class live better than the mid level bosses of the socialist countries. I give you the American leftists who have traveled to these other countries and, if they looked out the windows, saw how people live. And yet, instead of trying to help lift those people up like, say, Sam Walton, they try to tear us down.

Still, Janet is a new low, even for American lefties. The system worked. Okay, I must stop writing now before I burst into a long string of ugly words. The system worked. Oh, my.

Time To Quote Reagan

We on the right side of the aisle often quote Ronald Reagan and there is much to quote. Thing is, with this crowd in Washington we need to start quoting a different Reagan, Nancy. Ronald's beloved "Mommie" has one very famous, and often ridiculed, quote, "just say no".

This is what we Americans need to start saying to the thugocracy in Washington, as well as many state capitals. When Obama puts out an executive order saying that United States laws no longer apply to Interpol, we need to say no. Every law enforcement agency doing business in the United States must follow the law and muct respond to Freedom of Information Act requirements, from the FBI down to the Quinlan, Texas Police Department. Yet Obama is saying that Interpol doesn't? Nancy was right, just say no!

The Senate is trading hundreds of millions of our dollars so some Senators would vote yes for this monster bill that no one in the Senate has read. A bill that puts the decisions that were between me and my doctors are now in the hands of unelected boards and committees. Meanwhile they say that these decisions were all up to my insurance company, forgetting that I can sue my insurance company, we cannot sue the government unless the government gives us permission! Just say no!

It's time that millions of Americans tell Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, plus that pencil necked freak in the White House, "you have your bill, now try to enforce it!" Funny thing is, if they lock us up, the courts say we get first class medical care, not that cut rate stuff that Pelosi is trying to sell.

Pelosi and Reid got control of our Congress by promising to end corruption. That seems to be working rather poorly. Perhaps it is time to follow Nancy's instructions and just say no.

Merry Christmas!

So I went out today to get the tire fixed, Linda Lou drove into a curb for no apparent reason. It turned out the tire couldn't be fixed, the sidewall was broken so I had to buy one. It was, of course, the coldest day in forever, there were even snowflakes. It's supposed to be down into the low teens tonight with wind chills down to the single digits. There is something wonderful about a tire repair shop in winter, down here they do not have heat, most of the year they don't worry about heat, they're hoping to keep enough breeze going to prevent heatstroke.

By the time I finished carrying the groceries into the house the stairs were icing up, I have no idea of what I'd do if I lived in Minnesota or somesuch place where they actually have enough snow to stay on the ground for a while. That's not true, I have an idea, I'd move. South. Fast. And Far.

Still, while we're living four miles south of the North Pole I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

What If We Don't?

The idiots in Congress are passing a whole bunch of new laws, many of which a majority of citizens oppose. This is not the first time, nor, if the Republic survives, will it be the last. Periodically a vocal minority gets all fired up and Congress thinks they must follow.

The last time was during the First World War when Prohibition was enacted. I do not know, nor am I interested in looking up, the percentage of drinkers to non drinkers. That is not germane, what really matters is the percentage of drinkers plus the non drinkers who do not care what others do. I, for instance, am now a nondrinker. This is not because I care, it's simply that once I start, sometimes I cannot stop. So I have, with a lot of help, taught myself not to start. This does not mean that, you, the reader can't have a drink, for many, perhaps most, drinking in moderation is beneficial.

The point, though, is not about drinking or not, it's that prohibition was an abject failure. Many Americans simply liked to drink, even more did not want the government pushing them around. This led to massive noncompliance, along with massive crime. Much like drugs today. For that matter, I do not know but I surmise that much of today's drug use is that same desire to not take orders from the government.

A blade on our ceiling fan broke and I was looking for a replacement fan, turns out that all the fans since 2007 require those dumb little candelabra bulbs. I, instead of buying a new unit, glued the blade back together. Now I shall look for a ceiling fan that I can put the old light unit on, because I do not like those little bitty bulbs, nor do I like those congresscritters telling me I cannot have enough light to see in my own living room.

Congress is repeating the same mistakes as early in the last century, creating vast new thing that, ultimately, require voluntary cooperation. Cap and Trade. Suppose we don't? These multitudes of requirements and taxes in the "health care" bill. Suppose we don't? For instance, several doctors I know or know of, will now stop taking new Medicare and Medicaid patients. And well they should, treating someone where you lose money on every visit is not, persactly the way to make a living. Being required to be on Medicare, this really frightens me. For now, the two docs that keep me alive, will continue to see me. If, however, the government tells them they must take more M&M patients, they will both retire. My family practice Doc, Doctor Lopez, is too young but judging from his name he could probably practice someplace where he could make a living like Argentina.

So, what will happen when every Doc over the age of fifty retires? Has no one told the Democrats that slave days have been over for a while now? During Prohibition there were more Speakeasys per city than there were legal bars before Prohibition. So, this is what we will be seeing soon. Bulbeasys where we can get the good old incandescent bulbs for our homes, Healtheasys where we can see a Doc without the government being involved? Then what? Natural gaseasys so we can heat our homes? Generators hidden in soundproof ditches for electiceasys? The PETA hysterics. Will we have meateasys?

Seriously, what will they do? Governors are letting criminals out of prison because they cannot afford to keep them locked up. So, what will they be able to do with my real light bulbs? What are they going to do to retiring Docs?

Copenhagen

So I was wondering what all those fancy pants Yankees were doing talking about a brand of not very good eatin' tobacco and then I realised they were talking about a conference on how to turn the whole world into Zimbabwe. We'd all be money ahead if, instead they all got a chaw. Not Copenhagen, though, something good like Brown's Mule.

So, what have we learned about the environmentalists through this? Well let's see, the fifth largest oil exporting nation is run by a feller name of Hugo Chavez. Since he took over Venezuela their standard of living has dropped every year. He go a standing O at Copenhagen. Oh, and their clean up efforts have dropped, too.

Who else is a hero at Copenhagen? Oh yeah, Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Never mind that the population of Zimbabwe are dropping like flies, he got a nice chance to speak. Can someone explain to me why a thug like Ogabe isn't shot on sight?

Speaker after speaker ragged on the evils of capitalism and yet it is the capitalist countries of the world with the cleanest environments. Socialist countries have no money to clean up, the egalitarian socialist leaders steal it all. Kind of like the Czars in a certain unnamed administration.

Now I realise that most of the leaders of the environmental movement are watermelons, green on the outside, red on the inside but do the followers of these idiots not have eyes? Have the whole stinking world lost the ability to look at pictures of the Soviet Union when it was going? Or China? Has not one of these followers looked at what was West Germany and East Germany, even today?

The places where the heroes of the leaders of the environmental movement run, you can't drink the water. You have to be very careful eating the vegetables because of the heavy metal and human waste in the soil, meanwhile, the places they want to destroy are the cleanest. A thought problem...you're thirsty. Pour yourself a glass of tap water and drink it. Do you want that glass of tap water from the poorest town in the United States or the richest town in Zimbabwe? A middle class neighborhood in Venezuela or the USA?

Why is anyone listening to these knuckleheads? It's not just internationally, either. Right here in the USA we actually have people listening to the idiots who ran our great cities and states into the ground. Why does no one tell the governor of Michigan to sit down and shut up? The Mayor of Chicago should not be able to step outside for fear of the rocks thrown by citizens. The Governator of Cal-lee-forn-ya ought to be slapped in the face with the flat of a shovel every time he tells folks to conserve energy while he commutes from the Los angles area to Sacramento every working day.

It is past time we stop putting up with this load of horse, er, ah, fertilizer. The very next time any of these environmental or climate idiots tells you anything at all, tell 'em, fine, you first. If they tell you about energy use, tell 'em, fine, you cut down below my level and then I'll cut down. They tell you about population, tell 'em, fine, you drop dead and I'll see what that does for the environment.

It is time we stop letting these dimbulbs push us around.

Lee Loaders

I was wandering through the Intertoobz and I noticed several folks wanting to get, in addition to other supplies, ammunition. Seems that a lot of folks do not have a whole lot of faith in the Administration and it's plans.

You, the reader, may have noticed that ammunition is hard to come by these days, and expensive when you do find it. There is a trick, though, that will make you independent of the ammo shortages. There is a little kit sold for $22.00, called the Lee Loader, developed by Dick Lee up there in the snowbanks of Wisconsin. Now most kits for reloading ammunition are a tad complicated and kind of expensive, they also require that a press be fitted to a bench. Not so the Lee Loader.

A Lee Loader is powered by a brass or plastic hammer or, for that patter, a hardwood stick. They are a lot slower than a bench mounted press but, by the same token, a lot simpler to use. The loader comes with directions and a little plastic scoop for the powder.

Thousands of reloaders and handloaders have got their start using these nifty little kits. Many never move past them, sure they are kind of slow and not exactly real versatile but they will give at least one good load for each bullet weight in a cartridge.

The person who lives where it might be good to leave in a particular emergency would be money ahead buying one of these per cartridge of their "oh foo, things have got really bad guns", a few hundred bullets, a thousand primers and a canister of powder. All of this would fit into one of those little military ammo cans.

This is not much different than the hand tools the Buffalo Hunters used to make the west safe for farming. People act like making serviceable ammo is difficult. The Buffler Hunters did it by firelight and a significant percentage of them were illiterate.

Sarah And The Political Establishment

I've been thinking about why the Republican Establishment hates Sarah Palin almost as much as the Democrats do. My first thought is that once in office she brought down a couple of crooked Republicans.

Then I think that she does not need the political establishment, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. Just look at the folks waiting in freezing weather overnight to get a book signed when it's really easy to get the book from Amazon with no freezing and no lines.

I don't recall anyone sitting outside bookstores all night in freezing weather for Obama's books nor for Hilary!. This scares the foo out of establishment politicians of all stripes. To not need the handlers! To not care what the Davis Frums think? To be able to connect with real people without a speechwriter? Blasphemy!

No, establishment pols love Obama, he cannot create a coherent sentence without his teleprompter. This means plenty of jobs for the establishment pols. This, by the way, is why the establishment pols are pushing this two thousand plus page "health care" bill through Congress, even knowing that for many it is electoral suicide. Why should they care about elections with all of these lovely political jobs in those pages? There are so many boards and panels in these bills that every single Congresscritter could be voted out and the Obama gang could appoint each of them to lead one. The trouble is, those Congresscritters have no reason at all to believe the Obama gang won't throw them under that same bus everyone else has been thrown under.

That bus must have that jacked up suspension and the giant tires from the monster truck rallies. I wonder what the carbon footprint is?

Speaking of Carbon footprints, I wonder what the carbon footprint is of all those government creeps and NGO waterheads in Copenhagen is? Let's see here, strong evidence of fudged data and a whole slew of people that want us little guys to starve while freezing in the dark while they jet around from feast to feast. Um, don't you think they would have disarmed us first before trying this nonsense?

Stupid Or Evil?

This pencil necked character in the White House is making me crazy, I'm afraid of getting as crazy as those who suffered from Bush Derangement Syndrome. It starts with my deafness. I do not listen to the speeches so I tend to miss the uplifted chin and the metronomic swing from one teleprompter to the other. Instead I read the words, words that simply make no sense.

If you like the insurance you have you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have you can keep her. Except, of course, that with all the added people, plus the inability to turn anyone down or to raise rates, no insurance company will be able to keep offering health insurance. Oh, and there is the little problem of many doctors just retiring as will my Neurologist. He's in his fifties, he's made a few bucks, invested it in ways that the Washington vultures have not manage to ruin, why put up with it? Why not spend time with his grandkids?

Now my Neuro Doc is hardly alone. Now I don't ask everyone but both my Neuro and my Cardio Doc plan on retiring if Obama Care passes. And that means the nurses, nurses aids, receptionists and a few lab people will be out of a job. Meanwhile, no one says that our system can't use a little work, but two thousand page bills? How many pages would it take to write a bill saying that everyone below an particular income level gets all of his or her insurance paid for? Everyone making a bit more gets ninety percent, etc through people getting just a little help? Oh and pre-existing? Go into the pool.

Or Afghanistan. A real good way to lose a lot of soldiers is to have almost as many as are needed. Hitler discovered that in Russia. The Soviet Union found that out in Afghanistan. I fear we are going to find the same thing.

The bad guys have discovered that they cannot really fight us. So they don't. Instead they put explosives everywhere. Of course, the bad guys don't have to fight us now. They know we are going to trickle three quarters of the men that MacChrystal asked for and then bring them back in 18 months. Well, bring back the survivors, anyhow.

I don't know much of anything about this fight, my fight was four decades ago. I know a lot has changed but one that that hasn't changed much is that if thirty thousand more troops are going, only a small percentage of them will be Infantry, actually fighting the bad guys. Well, there will also be artillery and some of the rotorheads will be fighting, too. Far more will be pushing paper or turning wrenches back at the bases. Not that these folks are unimportant, a helo or track needs maintenance, and lots of it. Someone actually has to look at the requests for supplies, more have to pull it out of the supply room and put it on the birds going to the men out in the boonies, etc. In my day it was about ten men doing "stuff" for every Infantryman in the bush.

In my war we had up to a half million men in country and rifle squads were going out in the bush with five or seven men. Rifle Companies were at just over half strength and still expected to do the same job. Is this still happening? For all I know, it's worse. In my day if things got too bad we could pull a few guys out of the motor pool or supply. I'm curious about what percentage of the guys, I think they call 'em Fobbits now, can actually move about with the loads our Infantry carries. Can you imagine a skinny little kid from a brokedown Texas farm like Audie Murphy being in today's Infantry? Much less being the most decorated soldier from this new war?

But, I digress. Again. My point, and I do have one, is that we aren't sending enough of the troops that MacChrystal asked for. And MacC is, like a good soldier, simply saluting and trying, like the Generals did in my war. Remember how that turned out? Lord, I wish we had Generals who, when asked for a strategy would resign if they did not get the resources they need.

Trouble is, in the back of my mind there is a nagging fear that this is all on purpose. Can the Administration be trying to kill off or make the really topnotch troops quit? The Army and Marine Corps we have today would refuse, and properly so, orders to go into American cities and subdue a population refusing to be government slaves. Thugs like those fat boys doing what they thought were military drills for Obama would run from a squad of Marines. But, suppose, suppose that the Marines and Infantry are killed or quit in disgust. Suppose those New Black Panther thugs from Philly had, instead of nightsticks, the body armor and weapons of a Marine Rifleman?

I know this is pure paranoia. No Presidential Administration would ever purposely lose a war and destroy the military while, at the same time, wrecking the economy. It's pure paranoia, right? Right?

Obama Infiltrates An Enemy Camp And Lives

So, put your own guy in charge of the Afgan Overseas Contingency Operation*. Then when your guy tells you he needs some forty thousand+ more troops wait around for months and decide to give him thirty thousand and, oh by the way, they're all out of there sometime in 2011.

Announce this at West Point, where boys are turned into Regular Army Officers. These kids will be the Second Lieutenants, the ones with the life expectancy of a Mayfly in heavy combat. I cannot remember off the top of my head whether it was the United States Military Academy (West Point) Class of 1950 or 1951 that was almost wiped out in Korea but it doesn't really matter. A Class of the future leaders of the Army was nearly wiped out, those Cadets know it. So does the top brass in the Services, you don't eat the seed corn. That, of course, is why we had the Lt. Calley types, in their eagerness to protect the future leaders they neglected having enough competent leaders then.

Chis Matthews, he of the tingling thighs, described Oboma as going into an enemy Camp for this speech. He might be right. I suspect those Cadets know who values their lives. This may explain the paucity of applause in that speech tonight. It's a pretty tough thing to not be able to trust your Commander in Chief.

Speaking of trust, just how is anyone going to trust the United States? What are we going to see after the Great Skedaddle of 2011? Well, let us look back to Viet nam, the War Democrats Love. After Saigon fell and became Ho Chi Minh City the surviving military and police were sent to reeducation camps, the higher the rank, the longer the stay. Many were killed. The crippled veterans of the South got no pensions, of course. After the police and military got out of the "reeducation" camps they were forbidden any decent jobs.

If anything, the Taliban is more bloodthirsty than the North Viets. So, tell me again why, the next time anything, anywhere, gets ugly, anyone should bet their future on the United States. Oh, and tell me what happens to the Pakistani Nuclear Arsenal after the Americans leave.

Democrats love to talk about how much they love the little guy. Of course they do everything they can to see little guys die. If the Dems had got their way, Iraq would have been a bloodbath, just like Cambodia was. Of course it was during the Democrat rule of LBJ's day when the TOG Rule was codified. TOG or They're Only Gooks was very important. Transpose a couple of characters while calling in artillery and kill half a platoon of ARVNs? No problem, TOG Rule! Misjudge the wind and drop bombs on a Ville instead of the bad guys? TOG Rule.

The only difference today is the Dems don't want Americans involved at all. The new TOG Rule for the Dems is that only foreigners should do the killing. I'm not sure they don't like it when Americans die, after all there sure are a lot of abortions, and the Dems in charge of New Orleans sure didn't bother doing anything but complain before, during and after Katrina, They just hate to pay for having Armed Forces.

Oh, in case anyone thinks I only complain about Democrats, Huckabee sure did act like a gutless wonder in his statement about his commutation of the sentence of that Clemmons scumbag who seems to have shot down those LEOs in Washington State. Huckabee could have actually taken a bit of responsibility but then, that wouldn't be the Huck we all know and love.

*War is a lot easier to spell.

Scattershooting While Wondering Whatever to Silent Lew Walt

I am somewhat agog over the three SEAL Team members being charged with multiple "felony" charges and facing heavy penalties for allegedly giving the Jihadi that killed, beheaded and otherwise mutilated four Americans and who knows how many others, a fat lip.

All three of these men have had millions of dollars of training. Just going though BUD?S training is far more difficult than Harvard Law. I've never seen anyone in Law School have to run through soft sand while carrying full gear and an inflatable boat.

These men claim the Jihadi scumbag was in good shape when they turned him over to the Iraqis. Aside from the fact that I could, if I wanted, give myself a split lip just by bashing my face against the desk, why does anyone care? Maybe the scumbag did it himself, maybe the Iraqis did it. How on earth is anyone going to prove, beyond a doubt, that it was one, or more, of these SEALs? Furthermore, any of the Special Operators knows how to inflict massive pain without ever leaving a mark. Heck, any old street cop knows that.

Meanwhile, here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, that crowd of SEIU thugs that beat and stomped Kenneth Gladney while calling him bigoted names have finally been charged. With misdemeanors.

So, lets all get this straight. Go through the toughest training the in the country under the worst conditions, chasing the lowest, most violent people in the world, all for the pay of a MacDonald's Assistant Manager and get charged with multiple felonies for a possible split lip that could have been the result of others. Oh and in today's Service just going through a court martial is a career ender, no matter the verdict. Yet in all the hoo-rah about hate crimes in the civilian side, leftists get charged with misdemeanors for beating, stomping and using racial slurs to a black man.

And there is a big uproar over Glenn Beck saying that people should not reenlist. Sorry, I agree with Glenn. I came back from the Southeast Asian War Games. I remember how it was.Anyone wearing Uncle's suit right now will be a damned fool to take any chance at all of getting hurt, anywhere. We have an administration that loves SEIU and hates the military. And please do not wave Joe Biden's hee-row son at me.In spite of that stupid television show they had a few years back JAG Officers biggest risk is a paper cut. And many of the Jag Offs act like they are on the other side in this war. Many of them swallowed the kool aid in those liberal schools. I would bet that at least a third of the military lawyers would cheerfully throw the whole Armed Services into the toilet. It was, though, a good way to get Uncle Samuel to pay for law school.

If I was wearing Uncle's suit I'd go on sick call tomorrow with back trouble. If not back trouble, some kind of psychological woe, anything that would keep me from going downrange. Fifty-eight thousand of my brothers (and a few sisters) have their names on a black granite wall in Washington, DC. Hundreds of thousands of us were injured. And for what? I look at comments about this on other sites and see base calumny against my brothers and sisters in arms. I see idiots talking about the drugs in the Services during that war, I see the blather about fragging officers. That has grown to mythic proportions.Sure there were drugs, far less than in the same age group on Civvie Street, though. And, yes, there were some fraggings, not near as many as now thought, though. One thing that make me sure that fragging wasn't very common is that I put it into Google and the entire first page was lefty sites. If fragging was a real problem the first page would be military sites examining ways to solve the problem.

Actually, there were probably more officers and staff NCOs killed by their own men in WW2 than Viet Nam, more as a percentage. There is no one as pragmatic as a combat soldier. They'll put up with a lot of chicken droppings but they won't put up with someone incompetent enough to endanger their lives.

We went up to Plano to our daughter's for Thanksgiving dinner, didn't get pictures. Linda Lou made her famous dark sweet cherry cheesecake and I, for the first time in my life, made cranberry sauce. I had several recipes to choose from, I mostly used Rhee Drummand's.Her's calls for maple syrup instead of any kind of sugar. Trouble is, the only maple syrup out here is in a twelve ounce bottle (and is REAL expensive) and I didn't have quite enough for the two bags of cranberries. So, since the other recipe called for brown sugar I just added some of that until it wasn't too tart. I must say, it's better than Ocean Spray canned sauce. Next year, though, only one bag of cranberries. I keep forgetting, most everyone else is some kind of heathen and eats turkey without cranberry sauce. And Michael and Jeniffer took their kids down to San Antone to celebrate with her parents.

Well, those are my adventures. I'll probably have more to say about this SEAL mess. Like how come the Defense Dept crowd covered up all those red flags about that Nidal creep but is going pedal to the metal about the guys on the Teams?

Oh, and Lew Walt? A good Kansas boy who disgraced himself by moving to Ft. Collins, Colorado, then joining the Corps after getting a commission in the National Guard after ROTC in college. He earned two Navy Cross Medals, among other awards and retired as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. The first ever to earn the rank of General. If we had men like Silent Lew in the top ranks now we'd not see anything like what those SEALs are going through.

Birthdays And A Sick Dog

Let's see, a little catch up, Saturday was Bingo's birthday, he turned two. He didn't get a doggie birthday party for Ming the Merciless was somewhat sick with the hershey squirts. Poor girl. She just hates it if she can't make it outside. The good news is that only once did she do it on the carpet, a couple of times on the linoleum, the rest of the time she made it outside. The troubles seem to be over but we're still limiting her treats, mostly just kibble and water. Naturally, she's been sick during the rain. Now that the weather is nice again, she's fine.

We'll have Bingo's birthday party tomorrow or the next day.

In other birthday news, today is Linda Lou's mumble-mumble, cough birthday. I got up earlier than I normally do and fixed her raspberry muffins for breakfast. That was about the extent of our celebrating Linda Lou getting to the age of mumble mumble, cough.It was a while back but I accidentally brought home some blueberry and raspberry muffin mix. Somehow it became my job to make those muffins. We had them way to often for too long and we got as big as a house over them. Now we only eat them on special days as Linda Lou's Doc, and my Doc, are both pushing us to lose some weight. Ahh, Docs we have never seen or heard of want us to lose weight. It's an effing religion with Docs.

Everyone knows about those "scientists" and the leaked or hacked computer stuff. This is just icing on the cake. We knew this glow bull worming crap was a fake just by the way Algore bought a boat with the carbon footprint of Cambodia. What's that the Puppyblender always says? "I'll believe it's a crisis when the people saying it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis." Close to that, anyhow. Climate changes. Climate has always changed. Those glaciers in Wisconsin, seem to be gone. Few would say that's a bad thing, after all, there is Harvey's lovely wife. And Harvey, too, if you ever feel the need for help with your blog, or a dirty joke.

And nobody explains how humanity survived the awful warming trend where they had vineyards in Greenland that then became covered in glaciers which are now receding again. Seems to me that humanity not only survived but they made wine and ate grapes.

Actually, the problem isn't those "scientists". It's not even the politicians that used this "science" for political gain, nor is the problem those who sought to get rich over this "science". The problem is us. Ordinary people who forgot that these vermin are always with us and how we stopped coating them with hot tar and feathers and riding them all out of town on a rail. The mistake was ours. The first time those idiots said that the same process that has been going on for as long as there was an Earth is now an emergency and we didn't give him a good beating and send him on his way, bleeding and limping.

Naptime

Sometimes it is just plumb time for a nap. Now when I need a nap it's one thing. Linda Lou, though, she worked so hard when she was younger that her naps take two.

New York City Takes Another Hit.

Obama, or should I say O-Bow-Ma after his idiocy in Tokyo, and Holder must hate New York almost as much as they hate George W. Bush. Seems they are bringing Kahlid Sheik Mohammad to NYC for a civilian trial.

Not only does this lay out NYC as a bigger target than ever, plus tying up the area for miles around the courthouse for months, it shows the entire world how small the collective (and collectivist) brains of the entire Administration are.

First of all, what is the point? There is no way on earth the American people will ever allow KSM to be cut loose. If those two peabrains Obama and Holder tried to cut him loose after a hung jury more than the jury would be hanged and I don't care how many bodyguards they have.

So, if KSM can never walk, what is the point of a civilian trial? Can it be to put the Bush Administration, the CIA and the United States Military on trial? Can it be to force the country to admit, in open court, her methods of gaining information? Can it be to bring out the identities of all the men and women involved in questioning these creeps?

Y'all are going to have to pardon me for bein' a pore dumb redneck but it looks to me as if this is a game to Obama and company. The far left of their base hate the intelligence services and the parts of the military that work closely with them, the Special Forces, the SEAL Teams, the Air Commandos and the Marine Force Recon guys. The far left would love to have the names and pictures of all those guys spread all over the front page of the New York Times. I do not believe that the far left and, for that matter, Holder and Obama have thought this through, though.

I believe that Holder and Obama think that they will damage Republicans in this trial, maybe figure out a way to inict Bush and Cheney. This will make their master soros happy. Trouble is this trial will endanger a whole slew of people, starting with everyone anywhere near NYC, Washington, DC and probably every other city.

More than the danger to ordinary Americans, which I seriously doubt that Obama and Holder care about, there is the danger to themselves that I do not believe they are bright enough to see. What exactly do these two bozos think will happen when the identity of a crew of trained killers is spread all over the New York Times and MSNBC? What do they think will happen when a car bomb goes off outside the home of a Sneaky Pete Soldier and it kills his family? I mean half or more of the SF Troops have been sheep dipped to the various intel community outfits, very few of those have many people who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty so it's one of the boys with a Budweiser on his chest or a Girl Scout Hat* that gets the honors.

I just do not believe that Holder and Obama are smart enough to understand what happens when one threatens the safety to the families of the men and women they seem to hate so much.

* Have the Armed Services become so corporate that we can no longer destroy the furnishings of an Enlisted Men's Club by trying to buy some cookies by hollering "Yoo-hoo! Little Girl! I'd like three boxes of Thin Mints and two of Shortbreads to a tablefull of Green Beanies?"

Robin, Meleah and the Boys. We Miss Them

We got a fresh batch of pictures in the E-mail box the other day from our boy Robin, his wife Meleah and, of course, the usual suspects. It's kind of a long story how they ended up in the heart of NASCAR country, just a rifle shot from Charlotte Motor Speedway which is actually quite a little drive from Charlotte.

We Haven't seen them in way too long, we keep hoping that things will turn around and we'll be able to take a drive that way, no luck since '05 but, funny how right after the Dems took Congress back we quit being able to go places.

Oh well, those are four of the grandsons, all single, too.

In Flanders Field, In Fort Hood

In Flanders Field the poppies grow
between the crosses row on row

It's depressing to be a veteran in the United States today, a day when we still mourn the men and women gunned down by an Islamic terrorist. A day when the President of the United States has the gall to show up at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington.

The reality is that we have a President who does not deserve to so much as wash the jockstrap of the lowest E-1 at Parris Island. We have a Chief of Staff of the United States Army who thinks that diversity is more important than the lives of his soldiers.

Why do I think we'd be better off having General Casey demoted to E-2 and retired and a random infantry or armor sergeant promoted to Chief of Staff. Do a lottery, random E-5s promoted, hold the job for two years and then returned to the ranks. Oh, and Artillery and Signal, too. Any E-5 of a combat arm.

The old system worked for a long time but it isn't working now. We need a system in the military where folks putting their ideas into the services have to live with the results. When was the last time a General really had to live with the politically correct idiocy that is pervading our entire society, including the military.

I am having a minor fight with my electronic friend, Cynthia Yockey over gays in the military. I favor an experimental unit, she is just so durned sure. The difference between her and I is that I have seen the results of a unit where cohesion fell apart. I got to help carry the bodies back. This was a unit where racial strife opened young men to be killed and wounded. And this was close to 20 years after Truman integrated the Services.

The military is the most successful example of integration in the United States of America. Yet somehow we got a Tim McVeigh and a Nidal Hasan out of of the Army. And that nutjob they just executed, the "DC Sniper", too. Perhaps the Army should take a long look at itself. Is it just the Army's size that allows these clowns when we don't see them come out of the Corps or navy or even out of the wing wipers?

Unfortunately we won't see that long look, instead we're seeing a worry about their precious diversity. Perhaps if they knocked off that diversity crap and just beat into them that there is no white, black or brown but only Army Blue, kind of like the Marine Corps and the only color there is is green. By the time a recruit leaves San Diego or Parris Island he bleeds green when he's cut.

Speaking of San Diego and Parris Island, yesterday was the Corps' Birthday. Founded in Tun's Tavern, Philadelphia in 1775 you can still find a Marine in a tavern when off duty although the old fashioned hard drinking Marine is now going somewhat out of style.

Yesterday was also another anniversary. Another year has gone by in our life together, Linda Lou and I had a normal (for us) day although it was one of those wedding anniversaries, this one ending in 0. It would feel like yesterday if it weren't for all those grandkids running about. If I had it to do over again I would. I might try to take a little better care of my back but, otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing.

Random Shots At Moving Targets

What I am hoping is that when this Hasan clown comes out of his coma that they begin every period of questioning with Ha Ha, you were brought down by a woman! Given what we know about him, so far, that would be as effective as waterboarding.

I salute Sergeant Munley of the Fort Hood Police Dept. Sergeant Munley did the old fashioned police work. Instead of getting near the scene of the shooting and then hanging around, establishing a chain of command and a communications net, all the things the corporate police administrators like to do while people are dieing, she charged. She ran in and shot the guy doing the shooting. She was shot herself but she still managed to put four rounds into this waterhead. Bravo Zulu! My prayers and hopes are for a full recovery and a long and happy life.

WE have hundreds, if not thousands of Muslims serving in the Armed Forces. The vast majority seem to be doing their jobs.Some have been wounded and killed, still others decorated for exceptional service, even heroism. And regular readers here know that hero is not a word I use lightly. Everyone wearing Uncle's suit is not a hero, just like every cop and fireman is not a hero. I know, I wore the uniform and, given the choice, I am quite timid. Few people in uniform ever need to be heroic, mostly it's just a matter of following the training.

Still, here is the problem. We need those Muslim men and women in the Services. we need the language skills and knowledge of the cultures. We do not, though, need more Ft. Hoods or that clown rolling grenades into tents a la Kuwait, 2003. So, how in God's name do we sort out the loyal American soldiers who happen to be Muslim from the self service Jihadis?

And until we figure out some form of sorting procedure, how about arming at least some of the troops. Perhaps everyone above the rank of E-5 could carry a handgun. I know the military is terrified of negligent discharges but a Sergeant has the power to make men and women risk, sometimes lose their lives. If you give someone that kind of power you ought to be able to trust them with a shootin' iron. If you can't, maybe we ought to just close the Armed Services down and surrender to the Confederate Air Force. Except they changed their name.

And it is more than just the Armed Services. We have Somewhere in the neighborhood of three million Muslims in the USA. I am sure that the vast majority want exactly what you and I want, the ability to make a living, raise our families and be left alone. Thing is, if only one percent of American Muslims decide to become wild eyed Jihadis, that's 30,000. If only five percent decide to become shootists and splodeydopes, that's a hundred and fifty thousand. Now I'm pretty sure that the American people would not put up with even 30,000 jihadis running around here, much less 150,000. Mosques would start burning down, stores run by Arab Americans would be exploding, it would get pretty ugly. And the PC types have have painted us into the corner here. They have so demonized the Japanese internment in WW2 that we certainly cannot simply round 'em up and, after carefully interrogating them, or maybe truth serum, decide "you are cool, you go back to the old country."

So, we can't do that. But look here. The safety of my grandchildren is non negotiable. I would smilingly operate the wood chipper and grind every Muslim in America into liquid fertilizer to prevent so much as a skinned knee on any of my grandchildren. This might be a black mark about getting into Heaven but my grandchildren did not start this fight. Nor did I. I am perfectly willing to help end it, though.

Again, someone figure out a way to separate the sheep from the goats. Again, I am perfectly willing to stipulate that the vast majority of Muslims are good, law abiding citizens. Okay, great. The vast Majority of the Germans in Hamburg in 1943 had nothing to do with the Nazi Party, either. Funny, it sure got hot there, thanks to the 8th Air Force dropping high explosives by day and the RAF dropping firebombs by night. I read that Germans jumped in the canals to escape the fires and that many died when the water got so hot it cooked them. Now the Germans were unusually stubborn and took a lot of convincing before they gave up the fight. I'm not sure it was really lucky for them that the Russians rolled into Berlin before we developed the A Bomb, though. Perhaps European and world history would be somewhat better had we dropped those bombs when the Russkies were a couple hundred miles east of Budapest.

Anyhow, pray for the souls of those killed down in Hood and that He comfort the wounded. Pray that we figure out a way to keep the loyal citizens and eliminate the Jihadis. If we don't it will eventually be a bloodbath.

In other news tomorrow is a sad day in the Poorfarm here. I am taking my target/varmint rifle to the gunshow to try to sell it. I have not had the courage to try to shoot it since my stroke, I just don't trust my kinda numb and jerky right hand on that twelve ounce trigger. And, since I can't shoot it, she might as well go somewhere where she'll be appreciated. I hate this, I had intended to spend my retirement really studying precision shooting.

So, last chance to buy a Savage Model 12, with a stainless Douglas XX air gauged barrel, twist one turn in twelve inches, chambered in .223 Remington. This rifle has a target/varmint stock and a Burris Signature 8x32 power scope. The barrel was put on and the action truing work done by Fred Moreo, the Savage magician up at Sharp Shooter Supply in Ohio.

This rifle would, on a day when I had it together and the wind wasn't causing anvils to blow past, put five shots into a quarter inch group. Now that is not enough to win a real benchrest match but it's certainly good enough for varmints 'way out past Fort Mudge.

But wait! There is more! There is also the original barrel and stock, the barrel because one might want to shoot some of those long, heavy bullets and so would need the tighter one in nine twist, the lighter stock for if one would like to use this as a walking varmint rifle, a Savage barrel wrench for changing barrels, all the reloading dies and two boxes of one thousand each small rifle Benchrest primers, one thousand Federal, one thousand Remington. Don't even ask how much those primers are these days, plain vanilla primers are up to fifty bucks a thousand. The benchrest primers? Last seen around 2007 or so. Oh, and five hundred Sierra Matchking 53 grain flatbase hollowpoints and a slew of home moly coated fifty five grain bullets. Oh, yeah, and the original trigger.

Anyhow, I'm going to miss the old girl but if I can't shoot it, it might as well go somewhere where she can be shot. Maybe someplace in ground squirrel or prairie dog country. Maybe I'll be able to buy a couple seasons worth of cowboy action shooting with it.

A Waking Nightmare

It's a large room, deep in the heart of Texas. There is a large crowd of men and women on their way to Iraq and Afghanistan, many for their second, third or more tours. Suddenly shot ring out and men and women around you start to fall. You hit the deck and try to get behind something, anything. At the same time you try to shield someone, that's what you do when you're a warrior. And you start to pray and to curse the people who decided all the weapons need to be locked up, for safety. Safety.

This is what our bothers and sisters faced down in Fort Hood. A stateside military base is a gun free zone. The guns are kept locked up except when the brass want the troops to do something. And most of the time when the troops do have the shootin' irons, like when they get trained in marching around and such, the ammo is locked up. The Armed Forces are terrified of the idea that soldiers will go around shooting each other over two dollar bets and who gets first crack at that slightly overweight divorcee working the swing shift at the Dew Drop Inn.

The brass didn't think that an Army Major, a doctor who got all his training on the US taxpayers dime, would start shooting. The soldiers and the brass need to review and rethink the contract. Here is the deal...I sign up and agree to wear funny, unflattering clothes and get really bad haircuts. I agree to do what I'm told and go where I'm sent. I agree to put my life in danger getting into all sorts of really silly predicaments. I agree to go where a whole slew of complete strangers want to kill me for reasons I do not fully understand. I agree to try to kill or capture those strangers under rules of engagement that makes said killing more difficult.

Now you, the brass, agree to a few things, also. The most important is that you agree to not make my risks, and my life worthless. You also agree that, when you have me place my life in danger, I be the best armed, best equipped guy on the block. Now, brass, if you are going to put people like this Nidal Malik Hasan guy in the middle of the largest Army base on the continent, give me an effing gun! I would really prefer that, once you discover that Major Hasan is writing blog entries proud of what the homicide bombers are doing you let him practice his profession of Psychiatry in a slightly better place, one more suited to his talents. Like maybe inside the Federal Max Security Prison in Marion Illinois. Or perhaps on our government since it sure seems as if they need a shrink. Anyhow, brass, you are not supposed to put me, unarmed, into a big room with a nutcase armed with two pistols and God only knows how many loaded magazines and me and my pards nothing but our butts hanging in the breeze. Remember, brass, if my life doesn't mean much to you it still means a lot to my family.

Oh, and brass, please tell the FBI that it was too a terror incident. Okay, maybe this clown didn't belong to alQueda. It's quite probable he was acting alone. Please, brass, tell the FBI to look at the pictures of those wives and husbands waiting for word of their spouses and ask them again, was it terror? If they again say no, hit them in the face with a shovel and get some Federal cops with half a brain.

Can We Make It Two Thousand Pages?

So Pelosi and company have put out their 1990 page "health care" bill. Can Pelosi, Reid and Biden combined win a thinking contest with a rutabaga? It does not seem so.

Any dispassionate observer can look this bill over and see that it has nothing to do with "making healthcare affordable" This bill is, instead, all about power. This bunch simply thinks that Americans will fall into line and do what we're told when some unelected board of pencil necked geeks and ugly women in comfortable shoes can say "no, you voted wrong and now your grandson will not be treated for his expensive to treat condition".

Who will staff these boards after the first half dozen or so have been messily killed? It seems that this crowd of meatheads have lost touch with who lives in America. Here is the first clue, Nancy. We are the ones that didn't stay in Europe where we were all but slaves to an inept nobility.

We got here and found the folks that wouldn't, for whatever reason, stay in Siberia. It was a pretty good tussle for a couple-three hundred years but we finally ended up with the most fertile swath of the whole North American continent. It wasn't easy, there are untold thousands of unmarked graves spread all over this country. Why the Oregon Trail alone has an average of one grave every eighty yards from Independence MO to the Willamette Valley. And that was only one trail.

Nor are those of us who emigrated from Europe to come here unique. We have our Mexican Americans, most of whom cut ties with the old country, just the way we "Anglos" did. Although many, perhaps most, have kept in touch with their relatives better than most of us did still, they made a pretty big jump.

The Chinese, Japanese and Korean Americans took an even bigger leap, not to mention those who came from the Vietnamese Boat People.

Do those chowderhead Democrats, and their accomplices in the Washington Republicans really think the grandchildren of those who settled the west will put up with this nonsense?

Speaking of Washington Republicans, have you peabrained idiots learned anything? This Skuzzy person in NY-23 endorsed the Democrat after the conservatives in the District revolted and supported Hoffman. You Washington Republicans must have brains the size of walnuts. Y'all supported Ol' Arlen, to the tune of how many millions? You supported ol' Jumpin' Jim to the tune of how many millions? You supported this Skuzzy woman to the tune of most of a million, in a rural district, no less. And yet you keep crying that we must reach out to the moderates! And you wonder why your grassroots donations are drying up. Maybe you should stop sending boxcar loads of money to Democrats with an "R" behind their names, it ain't like they do any good and you can't even depend on them in things like votes for Speaker.

Just how many more elections to you clowns have to lose before you learn that Democrat-lite is not a winning strategy? Normally I wouldn't care but the clowns you idiots have allowed to "run" the country are running her off a cliff.