Ain't this a RIOT??? ---- Aw-w, shoot....


The Gospel according to
Kanye West












(some sample lyrics to his unique brand of psalm):

Crack my head on the steering wheel and I ain't even dead
If I could go through all that and still be breathing
Bitch bend over, I'm here for a reason

E-mailin me at 11:26, tellin me that she 36-26, plus double-d
You know how girls on black planet be when they get bubblee/
Birth Controls stuck to they arm like Nicorette
You really f***in that much, you tryin to get off cigarettes?

Does it make you want to get together with 3000 of your closest friends and burn down the local HMV? No? Whasswrongwichyew, you heart-numbed pig-dog, you?
Watch this space for my "Da Vinci Code Pledge for Thin-skinned Christians"-- I'm hard at work on it.

NEWSFLASH!!! Lock and Load!
Mainstream Media gets scoop on Tempest in a Teapot!

Tony Blankley of the Washington Times puts the whole Great Quail Massacre into perspective:

In the absence of any pressing news these days — other than Iran's nuclear weapons development crisis, the election of Hamas terrorists in Palestine, ongoing worldwide Muslim riots and killing in reaction to a cartoon, Al Gore's near sedition while speaking in Saudi Arabia, the turning over of our East Coast ports to be managed by a United Arab Emirates firm, the criminal leaking of vital NSA secrets to the New York Times, Mexican military incursions across our southern border, the Iraqi crisis, Congress's refusal to deal with the developing financial collapse of Social Security and Medicare, inter alia — the White House press corp has exploded in righteous fury over the question of the vice president's little shooting party last weekend.

... the hallmark of the Washington Press corps these days is mediocrity, groupthink, a lack of curiosity and rampant careerism. These attributes were all on show in the shooting party incident. But this is just a trivial incident — except for the poor, shot gentleman who suffered a heart attack, may he recover fully and quickly.

We live at a moment of revolutionary change in the international order. The rise and violence of radical, possibly caliphate-forming Islam and the huge, culture-changing, unexamined consequences of rampant globalization make the present one of the least predictable moments to be alive.... Should they ever have a truly daring, creative, productive, hard-researched idea about what is going on in this dangerous world, they should alert the media.

I believe it was Rush Limbaugh who tagged the image at right with the sentiment, "At least Cheney takes his victims to the hospital."

Speaking of Tony Blankley, I must sieze the too-long neglected opportunity to congratulate him on coining an insult so meaty and delicious as to have been unmatched in the annals of prose composition since the days of the Bard of Avon. It was Blankley who famously described the Congressional Democrats as "these fish-eyed sacks of loathsome bile and infamy: unwholesome in their birth; repugnant and stench-forming in their decline," in a piece from last November appropriately entitled An Incontinent Congress. Kudos-- you are the master.


SIR, THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, SIR

It's not very feminist of me, but I tend to side with journalist and military brat Kate O'Beirne on the subject of women's role in the military, an opinion which found a moment of justification when it was revealed that the highest ranking officer at Abu Ghraib prison at the time (that is to say the day, for it was but one) when the abuses recorded in the infamous photographs occurred, was a female Brigadier General, Janis Karpinski. My knee-jerk smirk was set more firmly when she wasted no time in living up to sexist weenie-woman stereotype by immediately whining and finger-pointing, like a cross between Adam in the Garden and Hogan's Sergeant Schultz, to the effect that it was all someone else's fault and she "see nothing, nothing."

I admit that I was fairly quick to judge her character (or lack of it) at the time, and I'm sure I was not alone. Frankly, it was shocking that someone could rise so high in the military and lack the fundamental principle that the buck stops with the ranking officer. (But then, let's remember who was president when the fast-track promotion of women was in play...) Sadly, it seems that first bad impression of Karpinski was justified-- not only did she persist in taking no responsibility for the outrages of her underlings, she is now, Cindy Sheehan-like, making the circuit of anti-war gripe-ins (like "Not in Our Name" mock war-crime trials) flogging a preposterous story of women soldiers dying of dehydration because they were so fearful of rape by their comrades-in-arms during night-time potty trips, that they didn't drink enough water to stay alive. (hat-tip Mudville Gazette)

This would seem to be proof not only of this woman's weakness of character but of her fundamental stupidity (she has that in common with the unfortunate Mrs. Sheehan too) about small matters such as the medical impossibility of what she is swearing took place, not to mention the fact that she has referred specifically to a female Master Sergeant who suffered this fate, when in fact not a single female Master Sergeant has died of any cause over the course of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Karpinski (now Colonel, having escaped with mere demotion-- she could, and probably should, have fared much worse) has also unwittingly fallen into a trap of making the case for keeping women out of combat-- not just because of the danger of rape (rare but possible from their fellow soldiers, but a virtual certainty from the enemy should the women be captured), but because, if one is to believe the Colonel, women who have received the same training as men are too weak to protect themselves and to insist on equal treatment under military regulations, and are too fearful and foolish to look after their own welfare by following the inviolable rule of self-preservation in desert war: drink water.

Mudville Gazzeteer puts a cap on the Karpinski saga, by saying that as assinine as it is, it's important to cover it because it has traction among the Bush-haters/anti-militarists. Nevertheless, he concludes, "I propose the following theory: Regardless of the number of individuals in the group, the combined IQ of people who believe this story will never exceed 10."

As far as I know, Kate O'Beirne does not include Janis Karpinski in her new controversial book Women Who Make the World Worse but as far as I'm concerned she's worth a footnote. She is a disgrace to all women in the military, and she makes me ashamed.

WHEN I QUOTE SHAKESPEARE, I DON'T MESS AROUND

A small follow-up to the possibly over-the-top quote from Henry V at the end of my New Year's Post regarding the current conflict in Iraq.

(You'll recall:
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here.)

I was checking in on my bookmarked mil-blogs and came upon the homecoming post of Rusten Currie at Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum obviously a thinking man's soldier. His reflections on the December 15 Iraqi election are especially moving (and they back me up!); and he ends the post with a tribute to the wife he will soon see again, closing it with these words:

When this is over and I hang this faded uniform I hope to spend the rest of my life with you and when we grow old together, and reflect on this war and our time apart as with soldiers in all wars I’ll be able to smile and say; “I was there."

What will I miss about Iraq? Nothing…everything.

On the election itself, he writes:

December 15th 2005, was one of the greatest days of my life, I was witness to the birth of democracy in Iraq. It is a rarity to be a part of such an historic event. Despite any and all arguments about the why we are here; by some accounts 75% of Iraqis registered to vote did so (Imagine who or groups of who, would not be in office if 75% of American voters turned out!). Despite threats (very real threats) of violence Iraqi men and women lined up and waited; some for hours, to vote. They waited patiently in lines that would have driven me mad! They have never before had such an opportunity to vote and have a say in their own nation....

The day passed without incident, save for the aforementioned self-determination of the nation by its citizens. All was quiet on virtually all fronts of the war in Iraq. In fact, I can honestly say I was bored. Being bored in war is a good thing, and as of late, I have been blissfully bored to no end.

On the war he writes:

Looking back at the last year, I remember so much and so many people I have met, and had the honor of serving with. I have seen some wonderful things here and I have seen some of the worst violence, and the darkness of the human soul. I have seen vicious acts of hatred, and I have seen selflessness I never thought possible.

This war is different from other wars… This war is exactly the same as every other war. War devours everything in its path; there is no mercy to it. There is no reason in it, it exists to destroy, and as long as there are governments run by mortals there will always be war. Yet, even in war the brighter side of humanity can shine through, I have seen it. Average Iraqis handing me a bottle of cold water in the blistering heat, a little girl holding the hand of a grieving soldier whose friend had been mortally wounded in an IED attack. Defiant Iraqi civilians standing in line to vote, so that their voice is heard.

This is Rusten Currie. Why isn't he on the cover of Rolling Stone? Perhaps it's because he's too thoughtful, too dignified, and too true for those who are more comfortable with the Lie.