THE BULLET MRS. CLINTON WAS REALLY DODGING

Over at Slate.com the perennially pissed (and I mean that in a nice way) Christopher Hitchens unloads one of his typically vein-popping demolition-jobs on Hillary Clinton, to the effect that
(a) not only did she lie shamelessly about being in danger while at least 4,000 American soldiers were protecting her worthless hide when she landed in Bosnia, BUT
(b) she also had a hand in throwing untold thousands of Bosnian Muslims under the Ethnic Cleansing bus when she leaned on Bill to waffle on his previous commitment to defend them, because it would distract from her brilliant national health-care initiative. Money quote:

The key factor in Bill's policy reversal was Hillary, who was said to have "deep misgivings" and viewed the situation as "a Vietnam that would compromise health-care reform." The United States took no further action in Bosnia, and the "ethnic cleansing" by the Serbs was to continue for four more years, resulting in the deaths of more than 250,000 people.

Wow. Got to hand it to Hitchens -- when he's outraged, he works without a net. Read it all here.


IN OTHER ELECTION NEWS:

In case you don't recognize him, he's THIS GUY:

THINGS I COULDN'T FORGET
BECAUSE I NEVER KNEW THEM
BECAUSE I WASN'T PAYING ATTENTION

Ultimate political animal Dick Morris relates the startling number of domestic terrorist acts committed between 1974 and 1982 in New York and Chicago by Puerto Rican terrorists pardoned by Bill Clinton in 1999, during his legacy-building, Hillary-for-senator-boosting executive pardon binge [get a coffee and donut before settling in to read this list -- IT'S HUGE-- more here] in his last presidential days before leaving office (with armloads of office supplies and home furnishings). Apparently it was all his staff's fault (everything is always someone else's fault if you're a Clinton) -- seems they were busy doing more than just vandalizing the typewriters.

Money quotes:

Two days before the president announced the clemency deal, New York City Councilman Jose Rivera personally presented Hillary with a packet on clemency, including a letter asking her to 'speak to the president and ask him to consider granting executive clemency' to the prisoners.

...Even in those pre-9/11 days, pardoning terrorists who weren't even remorseful drew public outrage; candidate Hillary soon wound up condemning Bill's decision.

[h/t Jewish World Review]


AND ANOTHER THING I NEVER KNEW:
MOOKIE AL SADR IS GOING TO GRAD SCHOOL

Cincinnatus blogs from Iraq with as much unclassified dirt on the all-Iraqi Basra smackdown campaign as he could squeeze out of the intel guy -- what spurred it (Muqtada al Sadsack announced he was planning to study for his Imamship, signalling that he was backing off from his sworn goal to violently oppose whatever needed opposing, so as to keep the bombs going off indefinitely), and how it's going (not good, so far, but it ain't over yet).


I WANTED TO TAKE PART IN 'EARTH HOUR' TONIGHT BUT...

...there was so much glare coming off the lights in every room in my house and both front and back porches that I couldn't see the electric clock well enough to detect when the hour started, and besides I was too busy watching basketball on my electric TV set and drinking cold beer out of my electric refrigerator.


When things get really absurd, it's time to call on acerbic libertarian zingermeister P.J. O'Rourke to tell us just how bad it really is. Apropos of Earth Hour/Day/Shoes/In The Balance [h/t Ms. Shaidle], P.J. opines:

(1) The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it.


(2) The people who believe that, as a result of industrial development, life is about to become a hell, or may be one already, are guilty, at least, of sloppy pronouncements. On page 8 of Earth in the Balance, Al Gore claims that his study of the arms race gave him "a deeper appreciation for the most horrifying fact in all our lives: civilization is now capable of destroying itself."
In the first place, the most horrifying fact in many of our lives is that our ex-spouse has gotten ahold of our ATM card. And civilization has always been able to destroy itself. The Greeks of ancient Athens, who had a civilization remarkable for lack of technological progress during its period of greatest knowledge and power, managed to destroy them fine.

(3) Sen. Ted Kennedy: "And when the Reagan administration was selling arms to Iran, WHERE WAS GEORGE?"
Answer: Dry, sober, and at home with his wife.

I don't know what this last bit has to do with the environment, but I feel my personal environment improves exponentially when somebody stuffs it to Ted Kennedy. More O'Rourke jewels here.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE FRONT

When Cincinnatus signed up for the Corps back in '03, we started our subscription to Leatherneck Magazine, which calls itself the "Magazine of the Marines" though that's in a pretty familial sense, since most of the news from the battlefield is a couple of months old and admittedly boosterish. Then there are the history articles, the profiles of people, places, weapon systems, and new books of interest. So it's not exactly the strategist's in-house organ. But we like it, and it still tells some hard truths.

Every month I make myself go to the page titled 'In Memoriam'. It usually falls somewhere past page 50. It begins with a black-bordered box which lists all Marines who have died, by whatever means (hostile or not) on active duty the previous month-- economical notices of the name, rank, age, home base, place and cause of death. That's followed by a page or more of notices of the passing of old vets, usually aged anywhere from 50 to 85, with obituary tributes of varying lengths.

In the worst of times these past five years the black box has taken up half or more of the first page. I make myself read every name and age, and the circumstances, and I try to imagine the pain of their families as the lives of their 18 and 19-year-old treasures, and a world of dreams for them, come to an abrupt halt.

Since early 2007 there has been a sea-change in the size of that box. It varies from month to month, but on the whole it has been mercifully shrinking. The March 2008 issue of Leatherneck arrived last week. On page 58 we read the following:

Ooh-rah.

Praise God.

A GENUINE IRAQI MARTYR:

ARCHBISHOP PAULOS FARAJ RAHHO, Chaldean Bishop of Mosul, was found dead today, after having been kidnapped two weeks ago and held for an enormous ransom of weapons and money. He had just finished saying the Stations of the Cross at the Church of the Holy Spirit, and was about leave in a car with three unarmed companions, all of whom were killed when their car was attacked. The Archbishop was then kidnapped at gunpoint.

As a man in need of medication for a heart condition, it was thought that he might have died from his chronic ill health, but

Church officials said Thursday, however, that Archbishop Rahho was shot in the leg when he was abducted on Feb. 29. Gunmen sprayed his car with bullets, killed two bodyguards and shoved the archbishop into the trunk of a car, the church officials said. In the darkness, he managed to pull out his cellphone and call the church, telling officials not to pay a ransom for his release, they said.

“He believed that this money would not be paid for good works and would be used for killing and more evil actions,” the officials said. [h/t New York Times]

Appeals from the Vatican and the Iraqi government for his safe return were ignored. If there were formal appeals from the U.S. government they did not make headlines, but American soldiers accompanied Iraqi special forces in the hunt for the Archbishop.

Authorities were tipped off by the Archbishop's murderers about the location of his body, which was found in a shallow grave outside Mosul. He had been dead for as much as five days.

Looks like a real trouble-maker, doesn't he? Oh, yeah, this guy had to go.

Gotta hand it to those geniuses in Al Qaeda-- they really know how to advance their cause. Dick Cheney got ahead of himself a few years ago (no, really?) , but it seems pretty clear that the rubbish at AQI have finally become bona fide 'dead-enders.' This was a desperate, pathetic pointless killing -- their stock-in-trade, actually, so no news there.

A statement of disgust and condemnation of this crime, issued by the Ramadan Foundation, a British organization of Muslim Youth, is welcomed -- let's hear more of this from you folks in the R.O.P. (Religion o' Peace)

For the repose of the soul of Archbishop Rahho:



Barring anything nuclear, Winefred bids farewell from now until the dawn of Resurrection.


Easter music of Jachet de Berchem -- O Jesu Christe

SOMETIMES JON STEWART GETS IT, LIKE, TOTALLY RIGHT



AND SOMETIMES A GUY NAMED "WRIGHT" GETS IT ALL WRONG



"Jesus was a poor black man...." Well, I guess that's a lie of convenience when, like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, you've given honors to Louis Farrakhan, who has some, er, problems with Jews and their "gutter religion".....

Note: It is everywhere claimed that Farrakhan never actually called Judaism a "gutter religion" -- only a "dirty religion." Well that's completely different. One customer/reviewer of Arthur J. Magida's Prophet of Rage: A Life of Louis Farrakhan and His Nation, over at Amazon.com, sets us straight on the origin of this apocryphal insult. What Minister Farrakhan really said was,

...to practice judaism, which is following the doctrine of the law of moses the lawgiver in the old testament of the bible, according to orthodox jews is the true judaism. To exploit people, particularly BLACK people, feeding on them and taking money out of the BLACK community charging exorbitant prices for cheaply made goods and services, is someone that is practicing a gutter religion by using BLACK people to enrich the jewish community.

Ah. You see how these things can get blown all out of proportion?


GOOD THING NOBODY AT THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN HAS NOTICED ANY OF THIS RACE STUFF GOING ON AT OBAMA'S CHRISTIAN MADRASSA PARISH, OR ANYTHING RACIAL OR BLACK OR DIVISIVE OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, EVER, EVER, EVER.





WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?




Army Spc. MONICA BROWN, a medic, wins the Silver Star for Valor for saving lives in Afghanistan.

Maybe we won't have a woman president this time around, but maybe, maybe......


WHILE, ON THE OTHER HAND....
WHAT GENIUS SUGGESTED THIS GUY TO
HEAD UP THE MIDDLE EAST COMMAND?

Admiral William "Fox" Fallon was promoted from his job as chief underminer of U.S./China policy at the Pacific Command, to undermining U.S. Middle East policy over at CINCCENT. Now he be outta here. "Resigned" was the euphemism, I think.

Max Boot weighs in as to why he got the boot, at the L.A. Times. Fred Kaplan gives the broad picture at Slate.com. Everybody would have us believe that Fallon's no fool, but the fact that he invited Esquire magazine to lick his toes, and that he seems to have a Nancy Pelosi-esque grasp of the success of the Surge, makes us wonder if it depends on what your definition of "fool" is. (Especially if his disdain of the surge has more to do with disdain for General Petraeus than for the facts on the ground.)

Maybe we'll get the real story if Fallon gives another interview at AL-FREAKING-JAZEERA.

What genius, I ask you? Why, I believe it's that Bob Gates fellow, who all in all would probably rather be at A & M. He has struck me as a bit weenie from the get-go, and seems to be determined to fulfill my worst nightmare that he's just another failed Texas crony of W's. Oy. Well, at least Fallon resigned instead of staying on, lying low, and then whining publicly about bad ideas that weren't his fault (see Lt. Gen Ricardo Sanchez --- WA-A-A-A-A-H-H-H-H! )

WHERE THE BUCK REALLY STOPS IN THIS MAN'S ARMY -- and debriefing

SIR, YES SIR!

Just checking out the website of Officer Training Command Newport, where #3 son is newly admitted into the Navy. Did not find immediate answer to the question I had in mind, but the following seemed extremely informative:

If you are a NEW ACCESSION attending ODS, DCO, OCS, you are not required to complete the NKO portion of the CBT's until arrival to OTC.

To establish a NKO/e-Learning Account, click on the links below:

All prior enlisted personnel, ODS, LDO/CWO, DCO, OCS, NSI, BOOST,

are required to complete the online courses

Mmm-kay.....


Perhaps these ladies can translate...


for the benefit of these guys...

Ahoy-vay!

LET THE VEEPSTAKES BEGIN!
MCCAIN CLINCHES IT



Ladies and gentlemen,
the Republican nominee.




Sleep with one eye open.




HRC
(Her Royal Cackleness)
pulls it out of the fire in Texas and Ohio


Middle East be damned -- she's got her own Two-State Solution.

HUCK-A-BOom.....


The Arkansas governor, compares himself to St. Paul, quotes the prophet Isaiah and former Kansas City Royal George Brett, and bows out. And that's a good thing.

DO YOU THINK THEY'LL VOTE FOR YOU IF I
BUY THEM ALL A CAR????

WHAT I'M READING

This morning I decided to pick up a book I've had on the shelf for ages, that Buckley kid's No Way to Treat a First Lady.

Not just because we're all still keening over the loss of WFB and have Buckleys on the brain -- I had been thinking for some time that this was an opportune season for once again revelling in the satirical verbgasms of WFB's son and heir Christopher [looking winsome at left], in his thinly veiled fantasy about the White House murder that might have been, had certain lamps and ash-trays taken a fatal path.

Talk about last minute -- I've started the book just 24 hours before what may be the final day when it can be assumed absolutely that any literate American will understand what it's about. After tomorrow, when Hillary Clinton's political career will likely be dealt its mortal wound, the relevance and recognition factor for Buckley's hilarious (Hillary-us) novel will have begun their warp-speed plummet. Catch it while it's still maximum fun, people!

The reality-based inspiration for Buckley's tale of a First Lady accused of "assassinating" her POTUS-husband [after he's found dead in the bed next to her, following an energetic tryst in the Lincoln bedroom with a donor's wife and then the ensuing marital smack-down] is clearly the embattled Clinton-on-Clinton White House marriage during the Lewinsky period -- a fact which might have him courting accusations of slander were he not to draw a clear, chronological distinction between his aptly-named lead character, "Beth MacMann" (Lady Bethmac) and the former First Lady, on page 21, calling Beth

a far cry from Hillary Clinton, who contented herself with taking care of her husband and giving the occasional tea for congressional wives.

Uh, yeah. We all recognize that woman.


HOW WE KNOW THAT RADICAL FEMINISM IS DEAD
[and it's not just because this is a Hillary item]

Feminist eye-con Gloria Steinem displayed her customary grace and perspective while out on the stump for Mrs. Clinton in Texas. Money quote:

Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?

[Audience laughter -- at what???? This passes for wit? Not to mention that it makes no sense whatever.]

I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so...I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting...from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.

Oy.


Let's have a memory moment -- it's 2004 and Ms. Steinem has hit the political trail again:

Steinem still has the leggy looks of a rock star -- and enough edginess to bring a room full of punk rockers to their feet. She did that in November when she introduced the feminist punk band Le Tigre while on the road stumping for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

John Kerry -- hot rocker and baby-killer. What a relief not to be campaigning for that guy again!
























Mrs. Clinton hits on yet another winning strategy.

A LITTLE TOUCH OF HARRY --
HE WISHES IT HAD BEEN MORE

Back at my post of May 16 last year I opined as how Prince Harry's aborted deployment to Iraq [Basra] with the British Army was the shameful work of a shameless media -- that if they could just keep it under wraps termporarily, he might successfully deploy to the hinterlands of Afghanistan, and do some soldier-stuff that might yet make a man of him, not to mention serving his country in an inspiring way.

The Brits obviously took my advice (heh) -- but the shameless media of other countries did not.

Harry put in ten good weeks, and then a couple of marginal ladies'-type publications in Germany and Australia let the royal kitten out of the bag.

This could have gone pretty much unnoticed, but then the human megaphone, Matt Drudge, got hold of the story, and the jig was up. Harry had to be extracted forthwith from Afghanistan for the safety of himself and his comrades (though he will probably now be a fairly good-sized target in Britain -- that was inevitable, one supposes).

Drudge, on the whole, does pretty good public service -- he only occasionally gets ahead of himself on the facts. But in this case, he had his facts correct -- he just had no conscience about the consequences of making them public. He could have waited six more weeks -- then big headlines, big graphics, big story on the Prince Who Pounded the Taliban. But he refused to risk being scooped. So he put a big fat target on Harry's back, and the backs of his mates. But what the hell, eh? Drudge got the big score -- that's what counts, right?

Drudge offers an email for comments, [DRUDGE@DRUDGEREPORT.COM] but I'm not aware that they ever get posted anywhere. So here's what I sent him:

I don't suppose we'll ever know exactly who was first to leak that Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan, though I understand the Drudge Report boasted an exclusive. Imagine that -- boasting at being first to put not just Harry but everyone he serves with in imminent danger of being specially, and no doubt spectacularly, targeted for death by Taliban murderers. You must be so proud!

As the parent of two members of the American military (one in Iraq), and a friend to people with a son in the British army (who served in Basra, and dreaded the scheduled deployment of Prince Harry there, once it was broadcast in the news), I condemn whole-heartedly your complicity in the publication of news which served no purpose whatsoever beyond endangering the lives of finer men than you, and frustrating the remote possibility that an aristocratic wastrel might be made something resembling a man at last, for the betterment of both himself and the increasingly sad-sack country over which his family reigns. Had he been permitted to complete his deployment without exposure, the headlines and your readership would have been just as big when the word got out that he had returned home -- no loss to you.

Disgusting. Shame.

When CODE PINK calls a CODE RED --
Who ya gonna call?

Not Ghostbusters!

Misery-muffin, motor-mouth, and pain-in-the-peacenik, the (appropriately-named) Medea Benjamin, apparently got into a scuffle with a drive-by spit artist while striking peaceful poses in front of the embattled Marine recruiting office in Berkeley, CA. She had the stones to chase after the guy until he got out of his car to confront her, at which time she feared for her safety and pushed the panic button.

Unfortunately for her, this time there were no police anywhere in sight, so she did what real Americans do in a crisis.

She called out for [wait for it] the Marines.

Some radio talker (of whom I know nothing else) covers the whole thing here.
[h/t Michelle Malkin at HOT AIR]

Gotta love it.

THINGS TO MAKE YOU SAY,
"HM-M-M-M-M-M...."

Creative soul Roger von Oech is visiting Vietnam, including the place John McCain called "home" (NOT) for 5 1/2 years. Take a gander. [h/t Instapundit]


Meanwhile back in Sweet Home Chicago, one of Barack Obambi's close associates, Tony Rezko, [pictured at left between.... Bill and Hill! Love it!] goes on trial on charges of being one of the bigger rats in the sewer which is (and has been for a good century and a half) Chicago/Illinois politics.

Promises to be revealing as to just what sort of goo Mr. Obambi had to wade in, in order to shoot to the top in so short a time. The proceedings do not appear to be aimed with any specificity at He-who-shall-not-be-middle-named, but it remains to be seen whether there will be something lingering around him besides the Odor of Sanctity. [h/t Instapundit again, with help from NewsAlert and ABC]


YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN CANADA

... and they're saying that Obambi is talking out of both sides of his mouth about NAFTA. Thanks to CTV for reporting that there's apparently some nudge-nudge/wink-wink going on when the Senator tells Ohio that NAFTA will be up for grabs in an Obama administration -- because his operatives tell Canadian trade officials that, aw shucks, he's just joshin', 'cause he's tryin' to win an election. Captain Ed, now at HOT AIR, gives the details.

WFB R.I.P.

High priest of American conservatism William F. Buckley Jr. has finally retired, in the Big Sense, gone to his reward to sit, appropriately, at the RIGHT hand of the Father, for whose honor and glory he always worked.

As he might say in one of his native tongues, Requiescat in pace.

From Terry to K-Lo at National Review Online's Corner Blog:

I am saddened by the passing of William F. Buckley, but our loss is Heaven's gain, and I'm sure the Good Lord told his angels to "Bring me a dictionary, Buckley's coming."

ENDGAME: I GET PUBLISHED IN THE POST
.... with a few tweaks here and there

[scroll down to previous post for the back-story]

I never write anything that I don't want to see published, but I also know that there are certain elements the editors love to cut, so I always include at least one -- usually an opening or parting "shot" that could be seen as throw-away. Today's National Post fails to disappoint -- they clipped off my tag-line about "Let's pray that when the next plane touches down, there's time enough for a second opinion." The rest of the toned-down toned-down version made it through.

Was I being too harsh with Dr. John Ross?

Puh-le-e-eze.

I wonder what Marine Veteran Ty Ziegel would think, speaking as an "amorphous, waxy" thoroughly human being, made triumphantly in the image of God:

ANNIVERSARY WALTZ


Andrew McCarthy at National Review Online reminds us that today marks fifteen years into America's defensive war against Islamo-fascism -- that is, fifteen years ago today the first attempt to topple the World Trade Center failed spectacularly, but still cost seven lives and a thousand injuries. [h/t Captain Ed]

He said/I said --
my day with the NATIONAL POST

At the bottom of a page well into the main news section of yesterday's National Post was an article about how the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has occasionally (about half a dozen times since '03) served as an emergency stopover for wounded American military personnel who, on their way back from Germany, develop complications and need serious medical attention before they can make it to one of the U.S.-based veterans' hospitals. The transport plane touches down in Halifax, and the soldier gets attended to in a hurry, sometimes having an extended stay before going on to the States.

Nice story.

Then they interview one of the doctors, on a day when the soldier in question doesn't make it, and dies in the plane at the Halifax terminal. The young man was a burn victim, whose face Dr. John Ross describes as "amorphous, waxy," as if it were covered in drippings from a burning candle.

Thanks, fella. This is a doctor, mind you, who has had (one would think) plenty of opportunity to see the effects of diseases and disasters during his career -- is it not strange that he seems to be "creeped out" by what he sees?

However, he seems pretty convinced of at least one thing:

Dr. Ross figures the tragic death at least spared the maimed soldier's relatives another kind of ordeal.

Time and again these days, young troops in their prime are returning home alive, but with permanently mangled bodies or damaged minds, the physician noted.

"It made me think about all the families whose loved ones come back in an altered state," he said. "If he had survived ... the family would never get closure."

Ah yes -- closure. What could be better than that? A child, husband, brother, father, alive and by your side through thick and thin, sharing his needs and pain as well as his love while you work through the challenges together... well, hell, who needs that, when you could put him in the ground and get closure????!!!!

Needless to say, I wasn't happy with this grim little anecdote, so I wrote a letter to the editor of the Post. Interest in publishing it was expressed right away, but with some caveats. Here's the dialogue of the day:

ME:

To the Editors:

It's nice to know that injured military personnel have an emergency rest stop available to them in Halifax when they're in need. But there's something disturbing in learning that their attending physician might be Dr. John Ross, who has decided that soldiers' families should be spared the "ordeal" of having their wounded children survive. My own son's four months in Iraq have so far been quite uneventful (thank you, General Petraeus), but should he come back injured I would hope he won't fall under the care of someone who thinks he'd be better off dead than handicapped. Does Dr. Ross think this of all mentally or physically disabled people, or just those who got that way because of war? Let's pray that when the next plane touches down, there's time enough for a second opinion.

HE:

Thanks for the letter. I will try to get it in tomorrow. And to be clear: I presume your son is part of a U.S. Military division. Can you tell me which one??

ME:

He is a captain in the Marine Corps, a helicopter pilot stationed at Al Asad air base in Anbar Province... [yada-yada-yada.....]

HE:

I showed your letter to the reporter who wrote the story and another editor, and they think you’re being too harsh on the doctor, and your letter portrays him as heartless. Could you make your point differently, perhaps suggesting that families would prefer to have the injured soldiers back alive, no matter how damaged they are???

ME:

What I sent to you was the toned-down version of my thoughts about Dr. Ross. He is by no means the first person to speak as though the 90% survival rate for Iraq war wounded is one of the DOWNSIDES to the conflict, though one hears that kind of comment more often from politicians or journalists than doctors. It is particularly repugnant in a doctor, and gives one every reason to speculate on whether he thinks of the IED-disabled all that differently from people severely handicapped from birth. I have a few friends with Down's syndrome children who, I suspect, will think I was not harsh enough, as they have encountered this brand of tossed-off heartlessness way too many times themselves.

That having been said, I offer the toned-down version of the earlier toned-down version, below:


It's nice to know that injured military personnel have an emergency rest stop available to them in Halifax when they're in need. But their families are unlikely to be comforted by the idea that a wounded soldier's survival with permanent disabilities represents an "ordeal" they might prefer to be spared, as suggested by Dr. John Ross. My own son's four months in Iraq have so far been quite uneventful (thank you, General Petraeus), but should he come back injured I would hope he wouldn't fall under the care of someone who thinks that he'd be better off dead than handicapped, and that his family would rather know the "closure" of his death than rally him to fight for his life. This is no way for anyone, especially a doctor, to think of mentally or physically disabled people, regardless of how they came to be in that condition. Let's pray that when the next plane touches down, there's time enough for a second opinion.

HE:

Thanks for this version. It still seems harsh. How about these additional, minor changes.

Instead of "... but should he come back injured I would hope he wouldn't fall under the care of someone who thinks that he'd be better off dead than handicapped ..."

How about:"... but should he come back with severe injuries, I would hope he wouldn't fall under the care of someone who thinks that he'd be better off dead than badly handicapped ..."

ME:

Strikes me as a distinction without a difference, but I'm willing to go with it if it seems appropriate.

I guess for me the word "handicapped" already implies severe injuries, since most military people have the ability to shake off what would leave the rest of us prostrate and whining. Nearly 60% of those classified as "wounded" in Iraq are back with their units within 72 hours -- and many who have lostlimbs wish they could be. It's weird, but it's a fact. Some of the proudest young people I've ever seen in uniform have appliances where pieces of themselves used to be, or have scalps full of white zig-zag scars. Hence my disgust with the good doctor's willingness to let them go -- on the whole they are the first to rage against the dying of the light.

I sent the final reply about 11:30 p.m., so it was either too late to go to print, or they just decided to can the whole thing in the face of my intransigence. Will see tomorrow a.m.

Two of the Few and the Proud I had in mind in my last exchange, with whom we broke bread at a conference a couple of years ago:

Lcpl Steven Schultz (left) and SSgt Mark Graunke (right)











Ooh-rah.

AT THE MOVIES
(on the couch):

"MIRACLE" -- [2004] story of the 1980 American Olympic hockey team that whupped the Soviet posterior -- bunch of 20-year-old college boys who rolled over the hardened meaty Muscovites of Glorious Soviet Armsky. CSI-NY's criminally cute Eddie Cahill plays star goalie Jim Craig, whose flag-draped circumnavigation of the rink after the U.S.A. gold medal game (against some ridiculous snow-nation like Finland or something a few days after the Russky-smash) is a sight never to be forgotten by anyone who ever enjoyed being American. Kurt Russell plays hard-bitten super-coach Herb Brooks.

Those were the days -- "malaise days" during the reign of the toothiest and (second?) worst president of the 20th century, James Earl Carter, whose snivelling, sanctimonious voice-overs gum up the background of the film sound track, against archival footage of the hostage-taking in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and re-enactments of gas station line-ups.


It's almost impossible to imagine (or, if you watched those games, as I did, to remember) how it felt to have a nation so united in the sheer joy of its own identity, in the knowledge that we had the character to survive defeat and humiliation, and to take on the neighbourhood bullies in the name of the neighbourhood. Today we stand in an arena against a team who play by no rules, who cheat and batter on every shift, while the good guys' team consists solely of Jim Craig and a towel boy against a thousand ruthless toothless forwards. But rather than uniting with our banner over our shoulders, roughly half the country is throwing pennies in our goal crease and and tying Craig's skate laces together. And no chants of "U.S.A" can be heard over the chorus of "We Are Scum".

/hockey metaphor off

DIAPER-BLOGGING AT MIRAMAR

Winefred disappears for a few days while caring for the Teufel-puppy, what with Daddy in Iraq and Mommy at a wedding.

Rocking baby to sleep to the distant Sounds of Freedom. (something in an F/A-18 Super Hornet?)

SIGN OF THE TIMES
(where? where?... huh? )

I just Google-mapped Israel to find a certain street in Jerusalem so I could a direct someone to shop there.

Good luck, sweetie.

Surprise -- Israel is blank.

The West Bank is delineated by a dashed line, but the country is otherwise uniformly grey -- no roads, cities, placenames, rivers, airports, features of any kind whatsoever.

Is this bigotry and hatred at work? Or just garden-variety cowardice? Or maybe Israel's just hiding, to save its scrawny neck from the bad guys.

Who cares. It's life. It's Google. It's a scandal. It's B.S., big-time. (screw 'em all -- Yahoo maps, Mapquest and Multimap are equally useless.)


Mostly it's Madmood Ahmadinnerjacket's dream come true -- that's the main point.

Israel -- POOF!!!! [Kaboom]

So nice of Google to accommodate him.

URGENT AGENDA weighs in with some collected comments about the Canonization of Saint Obambi. Apparently an increasing number of folks are finding it just a bit creepy.

Obama -- rhetorical heights so content-free he could be a public school curriculum.

Attention Laura, Rush, Sean, Ann and company:

MITT GETS IT

Why do so many politicians find the passion, and sink their teeth in the bread of sincerity and truth, only when they've dropped out of the race? I guess that tells us something about the consequences of putting oneself in that kind of pressure-cooker.

Anyhoo, Mitt got it, and while he was walking the plank he finally talked about a subject upon which he has been much too mute up till now. Words from his epilogue:

Today we are a nation at war. And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror: They would retreat, declare defeat.

And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that would make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child's play. About this, I have no doubt.

Now, I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, and finding and executing Osama bin Laden.

And I agree with him on eliminating Al Qaida and terror worldwide.

Now, if I fight on, in my campaign, all the way to the convention -- I want you to know, I've given this a lot of thought -- I'd forestall the launch of a national campaign and, frankly, I'd make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.

... in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

This isn't an easy decision. I hate to lose.

...I entered this race because I love America. And because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I have to now stand aside for our party and for our country.

I will continue to stand for conservative principles. I'll fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of the things we believe in is that we cannot allow the next president of the United States to retreat in the face of evil extremism.

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!




'Bye.