The Fast Squirrel

Good Bye.

2007-11-08T18:30:00.000-05:00

I remember being involved in a General Officer retirement ceremony once. When giving his speech, he began with, "I joined the United States Army as an enlisted man in 1962." We all groaned because we just knew that this was going to be a loooong one. Luckily, you are sitting and will be able to withstand the literary assault.

I began blogging in August 2005. Jeez. That is over two years ago. I didn't even remember my blogoversary. Bummer. In that time, the velocity of my life has increased by a factor of four. I was recently married, was promoted at work (a couple of times), and had two children. Friends and family passed away and new nieces, nephews, and children of friends replaced them. I struggled with my addiction to Copenhagen, worked on my MBA, and looked for ways to move my growing family into a larger house. In all ways, this is the pace of ordinary life in the modern family. Somehow, in the midst of all the craziness, I somehow managed to churn out over 300 odd posts.

I began as a pretty motivated writer. I had only just discovered my voice through blogging and thought that my perspective (and a couple cool pictures) would be interesting to somebody. Apparently, I was right as I've had over 24,000 visitors. I recognize that most were probably some bot passing through, but it is cool to me. I also met a couple of people, in person, who had actually read my blog which was very cool.

At the end of the day, however, my experiment in writing began to be consumed by my other responsibilities. I also grew weary of reading and writing about all of the political strife. Due to privacy concerns I stayed away from the vast majority of my life as a Squirrel. The things that I find the most interesting (family, friends, work, etc.) were something that I felt I needed to protect from the larger blogging community. You see, I believe that writing (perhaps more than words) live on forever. Honestly, I love my life too much to open it up to strangers. So without current events or personal stories… I ran out of stuff that to say.

I think of interesting things to post about nearly every day, but simply don't have the time or energy to do it justice. So, my blogging experiment comes to an end. I’ll still be lurking and throwing comments around on occasion. Thank you for all your reading, commenting, and support over the years!

My email will stay active, so y'all can reach me anytime at: fastest_squirrel-at-yahoo.com

Good luck and God bless!

The Fastest Squirrel

A Story Worth Telling

2007-11-01T07:37:00.000-05:00

Jeff Emanuel is a personal friend. A former Air Force Special Operator, Jeff has embedded in Iraq twice now. He tells dramatically different stories than you read in the Washington Post. I had the pleasure of supporting Jeff both financially and materially (equipment) on his last embed. Jeff just wrote me and let me know that he has a major article about to be published in the The American Spectator. Please go over to Jeff's site, read the article and, if you like his work, give him a little jingle in his tip jar (to fund his next embed). The article begins:

Samarra, Iraq
THE DAY OF August 26, 2007 began like any other for the soldiers of Charlie Company, 2-505 Parachute Infantry Regiment (from the 82nd Airborne Division) – with a mission in the city. Over a year into their deployment to Samarra, Iraq and now working on the three-month extension announced by Secretary of Defense Gates in the spring, the company knew the city like the back of their collective hands, and had their operational routine down to a science, whatever mission they might be tasked with.

On this morning, that mission was to establish a defensive perimeter around a block in central Samarra, so that Charlie Company’s 3rd (‘Blue’) Platoon, led by Lieutenant Scott Young, could search a shop where they had information that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were being manufactured.

Due to the insurgents’ penchant for placing IEDs behind Charlie Company’s vehicles so as to ambush them the next time they came through an area, two separate rooftop observation points (OPs) would be established, one to the north and one to the south of the shop, to watch the roads which were serving as Blue Platoon’s infiltration and exfiltration routes for enemy activity. The southern OP, led by Staff Sergeant Jason Wheeler, was manned with paratroopers from Charlie Company’s 1st (‘Red’) Platoon. “Reaper Two,” one of the sniper teams from 2nd Battalion’s scout platoon, would man the second OP, almost a kilometer to the north. Reaper would be overwatching the area from the roof of a large apartment building, which was laid out with the long axis facing north-south, and which was bordered – across the surrounding streets and alleys – by several other buildings.

Valour IT

2007-10-29T10:59:00.001-05:00

As most of my readers already know, there is an excellent way to support our wounded troops. Through the truly angelic Soldiers' Angels, a bit of history about Valour IT...

"Project Valour-IT began when Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss was wounded by an IED while serving as commander of a tank company in Iraq in June 2005.

During his deployment he kept a blog (an online personal diary, opinion forum, or news analysis site-called a milblog or military weblog when written by a servicemember or about military subjects). Captivating writing, insightful stories of his experiences, and his self-deprecating humor won him many loyal readers. After he was wounded, his wife continued his blog, keeping his readers informed of his condition.

As he began to recover, CPT Ziegenfuss wanted to return to writing his blog, but serious hand injuries hampered his typing. When a loyal and generous reader gave him a copy of the Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred software, other readers began to realize how important such software could be to CPT Ziegenfuss' fellow wounded soldiers and started cast about for a way to get it to them.

A fellow blogger (blog author) who writes under the pseudonym FbL contacted Captain Ziegenfuss and the two realized they shared a vision of providing laptops with voice-controlled software to wounded soldiers whose injuries prevented them from operating a standard computer. FbL contacted Soldiers Angels, who offered to help develop the project, and Project Valour-IT was born.

In sharing their thoughts, CPT Ziegenfuss and FbL found that memories of their respective fathers were a motivating factor in their work with the project. Both continue their association with this project in memory of the great men in their lives whose fine examples taught them lasting lessons of courage and generosity.

So what does Valour IT actually do? Well...

Every cent raised for Project Valour-IT goes directly to the purchase and shipment of laptops for severely wounded service members. As of October 2007, Valour-IT has distributed over 1500 laptops to severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines across the country.

Valour-IT accepts donations in any amount to support the purchase and distribution of laptops, but also offers a sponsorship option. An individual or organization may sponsor a wounded soldier by completely funding the cost of a laptop and continuing to provide that soldier with personal support and encouragement throughout recovery. This has proved to be an excellent project for churches, groups of coworkers or friends, and members of community organizations such Boy Scouts.

Originally Valour-IT provided the voice-controlled software, but now works closely with the Department of Defense Computer/electronic Accommodations Program (CAP): CAP supplies the adaptive software and Valour-IT provides the laptop. In addition, DoD caseworkers serve as Valour-IT’s “eyes and ears” at several medical centers, identifying possible laptop recipients. Wounded military personnel can also directly request a laptop through the sign-up form or through the Valour-IT/Soldiers' Angels representatives at the following medical centers:

* Balboa Naval Hospital

* Brooke Army Medical Center

* Madigan Regional Medical Center

* National Naval Medical Center (Bethesda Naval Hospital)

* Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton

* Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital (29 Palms)

* Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Thanks to the efforts of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Valour-IT is also able to reach patients in VA hospitals who would benefit from a Valour-IT laptop."

So, unsurprisingly, I am on the Army team again this year. Please give a little as it means so much to the wounded warriors who benefit. Click the link on the sidebar to donate. You guys rock!

A Problem Involving Globalization

2007-10-18T11:13:00.000-05:00

While perusing one of my daily reads, I came across this post by Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI-11) discussing the troublesome acquisition of a large portion of 3M by China. He writes, in part:

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) must review and block Bain Capital and communist China’s Huawei Technologies’ acquisition of a significant stake in the 3Com Corporation. If approved, Bain Capital and communist China’s Huawei Technologies’ stake in the 3Com Corporation will gravely compromise our free republic’s national security. The 3Com Corporation is a world leader in intrusion prevention technologies designed to protect secure computer networks from hacker infiltration. To date, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) extensively utilizes 3Com Corporation’s intrusion prevention technologies. Thus, in the wake of this year’s successful cyber warfare by the communist Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in which they hacked into one of our DOD’s and one of the German Foreign Ministry’s computer networks, approving this sale would be an abject abnegation of CFIUS’ duty to protect America’s vital defense technologies from enemy acquisition.

What? Forgotten (or unaware) that DOD systems had been hacked by the PLA? Not surprised, Anna Nicole was likely more important to "The Deciders" (see example of The Deciders here) at the time. Anyway, this is one example of an unintended consequence of globalization. As mentioned in the Red State comments, this is a serious problem that the DOD is aware of, but unable to wrap its arms around. Why? Some argue because it is too late.

Allow me to provide another example where globalization and lackluster public education in the United States is coalescing in an increasingly dangerous environment. While American students graduate with liberal arts degrees in Lesbian studies, the Chinese and Indians are graduating engineers... a lot of them. While there are some who are trying to put lipstick on a pig, the truth is that those who are graduating from PhD programs in Engineering in the U.S. are largely foreigners. Some would argue that these individuals end up working in the U.S. and so we benefit from a "brain drain" of other countries. Sure, it may be good for Silicon Valley, but what is happening in DOD and the larger defense industry?

Following Secretary Rumsfeld's ridiculously massive Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) in 2001, he took an interest in the effects of generational change in the Strategic Strike skill arena. In short, we were (and are) faced with a shortage of people who have the appropriate education and the ability to hold top U.S. security clearances. The 2002 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) revealed that our nuclear weapons program is aging quickly and that we had nothing meaningful on the drawing board for a next-generation platform.

So, the problem was identified and led to the question... why? Well, money is the overriding factor in any acquisition question, but a subset to the problem is that, unlike the 1940's and 50's, nuclear simply isn't "sexy" anymore. Why join the graybeards and work on nuclear stuff when you could be working on nanotechnology? (Damn you DARPA!)

If you have ever walked the halls at Lincoln Labs or Sandia, you will find that people simply aren't retiring. In some cases, scientists love their work... in other cases there isn't anyone to take their place. As an illustration, I am aware of one particular gentleman who has been making a specific vacuum tube for a particular platform (yes... vacuum tube). He has tried to retire on multiple occasions, only to be called back (as a contractor) to build more tubes. Why? Apparently, building this particular component requires a certain sort of magic or intuitiveness. He has passed this information on to others, but the new hires quickly grow bored and move on. If he were ever to have a stroke, we would have to seriously consider retiring that platform. A perfectly natural option to consider... except that we don't have a platform on the drawing board to replace it. True story.

So why don't we get something on the drawing board? Again, money is a prime suspect and we have a recent abysmal track record of delivery. Take the F-22 Raptor for example. Does anyone know when that particular platform hit the drawing board? I'll give you a hint, President Reagan was new to his office. Have we finished it yet? We wish. Though, to be fair, the delay has more to do with the velocity of technological advances in the past 15 years.

Back to the money (and I promise to tie this together), the cost of creating these new technologies and platforms is astronomical because of the lack of U.S. citizens with professional degrees and the ability to gain Top Secret access. We simply are not encouraging our children to pursue these sorts of degrees. In some cases grade inflation in high school is placing young people in degree programs that they simply aren't ready to conquer. "Heck, I got straight A's in high school, but I'm failing Calc 3!" No kidding. In many areas, the globalization of jobs has filled the gap left by our education system, but it doesn't apply to classified projects.

Still with me? Good, cause there is another serious problem that DOD is wrestling with in regards to globalization. That problem is software and hardware assurance. Unbeknownst to many, DOD is one of the largest purchasers of software applications in the WORLD. The problem is even a program created and sold by Microsoft has had portions of it outsourced to other countries. In millions of lines of code, how does DOD ensure that malicious or bad code hasn't been inserted into pre-packaged software? They try, but can't handle amount of sleuthing required to find such issues. All it takes is for one system to be compromised to make portions of the DOD come to a crashing halt. This isn't a classified discussion, large corporations share these fears. But, what can we do to stop it... mitigate it... Etc.? We begin with acquisitions of companies by 3M.

While some can't see the sovereignty issues involved in a sale of a large portion of 3M to China, others lose sleep about the prospect every single night. I certainly don't have the answers, but we can't pretend that the free market works in all circumstances.

Gotta See This One

2007-10-18T09:15:00.000-05:00

As a conservative on campus I had female professors say things to me that would have forced me to punch a man... the reason? My beliefs. I'm not alone...

Hat tip to Powerline...

Taps for My Uncle

2007-10-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

My Uncle John was only 58 years-old when he suffered a massive coronary. He was born and raised on the family farm in southeast Iowa. He loved to tell stories of his youth... about experiences that don't happen anymore... like the horseback cattle drive he did from a neighbor's farm to a farm several miles away. Like his father, he was a deeply honest conservative Christian. He also was the spitting image of his father. I remember the lean, muscle that rippled as he worked... his dark black hair and trademark mustache. A very handsome man, he lived his principles and passed those principles to his three children.

During Vietnam, Uncle John tried to enlist, but had a physical problem that precluded his service. In later years, he would love to hear the Army stories that my brother and I told. A steady man who deeply loved his family, he is the sort of man that makes my service worth the sacrifices.

When I was young, Uncle John moved his little family from our small Iowa community and headed West to California. I remember missing my cousins Michelle and Johnner. For years I hoped that they would come back and can still point to the pew in our little church where they would sit.

Uncle John took up work as an electrician and was widely sought out as a hardworking expert. There were several years where we didn't keep up with one another... as these things go. But the death of my grandparents brought us all back together... though the miles remained between us. We spoke on the phone a couple of times a year and my mother (the oldest) would keep us filled in on their lives. With my hectic schedule, I found time to visit them in California in August of 2005. I'm so grateful that I did.

My Uncle was a car enthusiast who could tinker-with and fix anything. In an age of metrosexuals with an apparent lack of skills, he set an example that I will try to live up to.

I can picture him now... in Heaven... Grandpa puttering around in the Machine Shed... shirt off... an ancient ball glove tucked in the back pocket of his jeans... waiting for Grandma to stop fussing over her oldest son... waiting for a long overdue game of catch. While I miss him and feel the unfairness of a life left early... I am also jealous. He is with family and our Lord... waiting for the rest of us to join him.

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free!
I follow the plan God laid for me.
I saw His face, I heard His call,
I took His hand and left it all...
I could not stay another day,
To love, to laugh, to work or play;
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
And if my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss...
Ah yes, these things I, too, shall miss.
My life's been full, I've savoured much:
Good times, good friends, a loved-one's touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief—
Don't shorten yours with undue grief.
Be not burdened with tears of sorrow,
Enjoy the sunshine of the morrow.

- Rhonda Braswell

Too Much Time On My Hands

2007-10-03T09:43:00.000-05:00

Apologies to Styx.

Sooooo, I was wondering where the Bible and this blog intersects. I mean, a blog this crappy has to be in God's plan somewhere... it doesn't just crawl out of the cosmic soup! An exhaustive year's long journey of silent contemplation and hippie beatings has revealed the truth. Behold!

Why Syria is Freaking Out, Man!

2007-10-02T12:20:00.000-05:00

First, the Israelis (according to this report in the Times Online) sent some "commandos" into Syria to snatch North Korean nuclear material. From the article:

ISRAELI commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – almost certainly dressed in Syrian uniforms – made their way stealthily towards a secret military compound near Dayr az-Zawr in northern Syria. They were looking for proof that Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.

Israel had been surveying the site for months, according to Washington and Israeli sources. President George W Bush was told during the summer that Israeli intelligence suggested North Korean personnel and nuclear-related material were at the Syrian site.

Israel was determined not to take any chances with its neighbour. Following the example set by its raid on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak 1981, it drew up plans to bomb the Syrian compound.

But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.

Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.

That had to really piss them off. Hell, the Syrians (with the abundant aid of Iran) have been fighting a proxy war with Israel for years. In fact, they spent millions of dollars on Air Defense systems so that they could remain safe from Israeli air strikes. Of course, they must have totally freaked when the Israelis (probably with some help from Uncle Sam) simply turned those systems off for the September 6th air strike.

Israeli F-15s of the 69th Fighter Squadron, approaching from the Mediterranean, crossed the Syrian coast and streaked to an industrial complex that Syria claims was engaged in agricultural research, but is believed to be used to extract uranium from phosphates.

Israeli commandos in the area painted the target with laser designators that resulted in a precision strike that left the facility in flames. It was a perfectly executed operation, from disabling the enemy’s defenses to destroying the target and recovering all friendly forces involved.

Observers believe the target was a stockpile of components for nuclear weapons, supplied by North Korea. The raid occurred three days after a North Korean ship arrived in Syria with a cargo listed as “cement,” but suspected of being weapons components. It is not clear that Syria was the final destination of these materials, but that clearly didn't get any further.

The Government of Israel has remarkable powers to control the press in covering these sorts of incidents. Now, Fox News is reporting the the imposed blackout about this operation is being lifted somewhat.

Israel on Tuesday eased a strict news blackout on an airstrike in Syria last month, allowing the first publication of reports it struck an unspecified "military target" deep inside Syrian territory.

Israel's military censor had imposed a total blackout on coverage of the Sept. 6 airstrike. But Tuesday, the office allowed preliminary details to be published after Syria's president, Bashar Assad, confirmed the airstrike in a televised interview.

"Israeli air force planes attacked a military target deep inside Syria on Sept. 6, the military censor allowed for publication today," Israel's Army Radio reported. The headline on the web site of the Maariv newspaper was, "Now it can be revealed: Israel attacked in Syria," while the Haaretz newspaper led with the military's permission to publish "the fact" of Israel's attack.

However, the censor continued to bar publication of other key details, including the target of the raid, which forces participated in the mission and whether the operation was successful.

Foreign reports, quoting unidentified U.S. officials, have speculated that Israel attacked a weapons shipment destined for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, or attacked a nuclear facility built with North Korean technology.

North Korea, which provides missile technology to Syria, has denied any nuclear link. Syria also has denied receiving North Korean nuclear help.

So, the Syrians denied it. That hollow sound is echo from their robust protestations. Syria, Iran, North Korea... a trifecta of destruction. Now, if only someone could convince the Dishonorable Nancy Pelosi. She has joined the august ranks of Jimmah Carter, Jesse Jackson, and President Clinton who have "brought peace to the Middle East."

Thanks, but the Israelis seem to have the right of it.

Wonder Where I've Been?

2007-09-26T20:01:00.000-05:00

Training... thanks to Mr. Mahar.

Worth Knowing

2007-09-26T19:53:00.000-05:00

I got this via email from reader named Mike M. (thanks, dude) and it is very interesting!

"TRIANGLE OF LIFE"-

Edited by Larry Linn for MAA Safety Committee on 4/13/04.

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United

Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

In 1996 we made a film which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did "duck and cover," and ten mannequins I used in my "triangle of life" survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover. There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the "triangle of life." This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under their desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the children were told to hide under something.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the "triangle of life." The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured

The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the "triangles" you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building. They are everywhere.

TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY:

1) Almost everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If wooden buildings collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Almost everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different "moment of frequency" (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads -- horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked;

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone's life... more here.

This Is "Pucker Factor"

2007-09-26T15:25:00.000-05:00

Via Blackfive... this is an example of why "there are no atheists in foxholes."

BTW... I'm back and none worse for the wear!

Out of Pocket

2007-09-05T07:14:00.000-05:00

Sorry y'all. I'm out on business until late September. Try and keep the house picked up while I'm gone...

Iowa Is Totally Teh Ghey

2007-08-31T17:51:00.001-05:00

So, a district court in my home state of Iowa has ruled that "same-sex" marriage is protected under the Iowa Constitution’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. No really, you can read the ruling here. Not that anyone remembers, but in 2006 the voters of the great State voted that marriage was to exist between a man and a woman.

If you read the link it is clear that the douchebag judges were already hip-deep into the side of the plaintiffs. Activist judges? You bet. Iowa has long had a strong democratic voice consisting largely of old church ladies. These ladies have no idea what is going on with their party. I sincerely hope that this wakes them up. The loonies are in charge of the asylum in Iowa. Sad.

Idiotic, Liberal, Douchebag

2007-08-26T15:59:00.000-05:00

But I repeat myself...

Anyway, in an attempt to show his complete ignorance about all things economic, AP writer Matt Gouras shows his ass.

In an article supposedly about the "crappy" economy, he turns all relevant knowledge about economics on its head.

The region hit an all-time low of 3.4 percent in May. The effects are everywhere. Logging equipment in Idaho sits idle as companies have a tough time finding workers. A shortage of lifeguards has forced Helena to shorten hours at children-only pools. A local paper in Jackson, Wyo., has page after page of help wanted ads....

The problem has created longer hours and tougher working conditions for current employees....

The problem could get worse as more baby boomers retire....

So, low unemployment is now something that is bad... except that this Stalinist dick would surely write similarly about 8% unemployment.

Want to know the deep dark secret about finding workers in a low unemployment market? Do ya? *stage whispers* Raise wages. That's right, you raise wages to attract workers. How does this work in small town America?

A quick example: Let us assume that is a shortage in loggers, an ample supply of trees to be harvested, and continued demand for wood. To attract workers the company raises the wages that it pays to loggers and subsequently increases the price of wood that it sells to consumers to cover the increased operating cost. While it is a delicate balance, if the wages are high enough, it may attract loggers who live in other locations. The increased wages may also attract local workers from other sectors (say, cashiers) to switch to a new career in logging.

To preempt this basic fact, the asshat manages to find a feckless whiner to spice up his steaming pile...

John Francis, who owns the McDonald's in Sidney, Mont., said he tried advertising in the local newspaper and even offered up to $10 an hour to compete with higher-paying oil field jobs. Yet the only calls were from other business owners upset they would have to raise wages, too. Of course, Francis' current employees also wanted a pay hike.

"I don't know what the answer is," Francis said. "There's just nobody around that wants to work."

Boo hoo hoo. Cry me a river. If this guy can't figure this out, he should retire now and let someone with some common sense run the place. Anyway, a truly insipid and stupid piece about how terrible it is that everyone has a freakin' job. Journalists are by and large a bunch of ignorant jackasses. End Rant.

Uber Funny

2007-08-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

IF you know Saudis (and I do)...

Stuff Worth Repeating #8

2007-08-20T15:56:00.001-05:00

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul."

- Inscription beneath the bust of Mark Twain in the Hall of Fame

Pretty Cool

2007-08-17T12:50:00.001-05:00

Articulate Ace

2007-08-17T08:31:00.000-05:00

I've long enjoyed Ace of Spades. At the heart he is a comedian. I honestly don't know how he manages to post so much. Anyway, while perusing his wares today I came across a morsel that I hadn't been able to articulate... Ace does it for me...

"Why is it that liberals see no contradiction in forever claiming they're rabid champions of fighting the "real war" in Afganistan and finally defeating Al-Qaeda but only conservatives have any obligation to actually fight in the war?"

Funny

2007-08-06T11:59:00.000-05:00

A Pollack went to the DMV to apply for a driver's license.

First, of course, he had to take an eye sight test. The optician showed him a card with the letters:
'C Z W I X N O S T A C Z.'

"Can you read this?" the optician asked.

"Read it?" the Polish guy replied, "I know the guy."

Reading List

2007-08-03T14:04:00.000-05:00

Greetings Gentle Readers. I'm sure that I've mentioned it, but I'm a slave to books. I read at a distressingly brisk pace and have thousands of books to prove it. The only book worth mentioning that I finished recently is the newest Harry Potter. Well done.

So, currently I am reading Atlas Shrugged, by the inestimable Ayn Rand. This will be my third complete reading.

What are you reading?

Back from Travel

2007-08-03T11:53:00.001-05:00

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.

Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.

"Careful," he said, "CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my GOD!
You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my GOD! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! Careful . CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!"

The wife stared at him. "What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?"

The husband calmly replied, "I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving."

Out of Pocket

2007-07-20T07:31:00.000-05:00

I'll be OCONUS for the next couple weeks. In the meantime, enjoy these:

Stuff Worth Repeating #7

2007-07-19T06:18:00.000-05:00

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Metallica + Minigun = Sweet Awesomeness

2007-07-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

Quitting the Demon

2007-07-18T13:58:00.000-05:00

Originally posted in May 2006... I'm reposting this now after over three years as a quitter!

So, I was sitting in my office a couple years ago and I had my lip full of copenhagen, as per S.O.P. and I was hurtin'. My mouth was a mass of sores, I couldn't brush my teeth without gums bleeding and I was just sick of feeling like a slave to nicotine. So I hopped onto Google and typed in quit dipping... and *POW* I found a website called Quit Smokeless. I immediately recognized that this was my chance to quit... for good.The article here is one that really spoke to me. It begins:

Although we have never met, I know you. You started chewing tobacco around high school. It quickly became part of your personality, part of your behavior, and part of your life. At some point, you developed a bad sore throat and thought, "Oh my God, please do not let it be cancer." You decided to quit for the first time. But your throat got better, and one thing lead to another, and you bought another tin.

Since then, you have tried to quit many, many times. You have blown through countless "quit deadlines," like "I will quit when I graduate," "I will quit when I get a job," "I will quit when I am (20)(25)(30)(35)," "I will quit when the baby is born," "I will quit when my workload lightens up," and "I will quit on New Years." But, when the deadline came, it was never a good time to quit. Or you quit for a while, but then some problem or stress came into your life and you just "had" to go back to the tin (what was that problem?). Or you quit for someone else (wife, girlfriend, etc.), but then they made you angry, so you started to chew again. No one is going to tell you what to do.

At some point, you stopped telling the people around you that you were trying to quit tobacco, because it was just too embarassing when you failed. You covered yourself for years with "I do not want to quit," so that no one knows you're completely addicted. It's not like you are an alcoholic or drug addict, right? For the same reasons, you never asked anyone for their help or support, because you are not some spineless, weak-mind junkie who "needs help." And besides, they would never understand it anyway, because "they" just think it's some stupid or gross "spit" habit.

Ultimately, you just resigned to your addiction. You justified it with "It is my only bad habit," "The risk of getting oral cancer is (small/exaggerated/not real/for heavy users/for hillbillies/for people who don't brush their teeth)," "I need tobacco to (work/write/concentrate/be productive/play ball/live)," "I am happier with tobacco," "If I get cancer, I get cancer. Everyone dies of something," And Now, you have been chewing tobacco for years and years, and you couldn't quit, even if you wanted to.

And then you found this website

WOW! You'll have to read on. One of the great things about it was that you could join an online support group of guys (and gals in some cases) that you could chat with to help you get through. Mr. Matt van Wyk was the man who started and ran the site. As of 14 May 2006 he gave up maintaining this part of the site. A fellow quitter whose handle is Flavius Victor started a mirror site that replaced the online chat forum. God bless him. It's interim site is found here.

If you are a dipper... or know a dipper who is looking to quit. Please direct them to this site. I dipped constantly for twenty years and finally freed myself of addiction. It was hard, really damn hard. It was also the best thing that I have done for myself in my life. Check it out and please let me know what ya'll think and experience.

LOL!

2007-07-14T07:09:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know it's old, but it made me laugh.

Pretty Damn Cool

2007-07-13T17:03:00.000-05:00

Failure is Not an Option

2007-07-12T13:05:00.000-05:00

The following post is from the Directors of Redstate. It reflects my own thinking... much more eloquently.

The war in Iraq is vital to America’s national security and to the Global War on Terror. It is a fight which we are not currently losing on the ground, and which we will not lose if we commit to victory, rather than taking the path that appears easier, at least in the short term – abandoning yet another battlefield to the enemy.

We live in an age of unparalleled access to information. Little more than a century ago, wars were fought and supported by nations that had no idea of the outcome of battles until well after they were won or lost. Even monarchs and elected leaders often made decisions based on information whose age was measured in months or even years.

Today, the majority of Americans have access to instantaneous reports from Iraq. Yet still they harbor misconceptions, borne out of what we can only assume to be purposeful ignorance. They do so at a moment where these reports, and the story they tell, are vital both to our military success in that country and to the security of our country in the long term.

Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization which attacked us in 1993, in 1998, in 2000, and in 2001 – and numerous other times – has the dual distinction of being both the highest-profile enemy in the War on Terror, and enemy number one in Iraq. Regardless of Speaker of the House Nancy “The Real War on Terror is in Afghanistan” Pelosi’s apparent belief, along with many of her colleagues, that the latter is untrue, the leaders of that terror network have said otherwise, and have done so loudly and repeatedly.

Only last week, Ayman al-Zawahiri (via video) spoke of the vital role that Iraq currently plays as “the centerpiece of [al Qaeda’s] anti-American fight.” It is safe, we think, to suppose that al-Zawahiri may have a bit more knowledge of al Qaeda’s operations than Ms. Pelosi.

Yet since the war’s very beginning, the calls have come – from retired military officers, politicians, and activists – for a change in course in Iraq. And Ms. Pelosi is determined to listen.

Yes, it's our longest ever Directors' post, but please do keep reading . . .

This week, Democrats in Congress will be voting on a resolution (HR 2956) demanding this change of course – despite the fact that only six months ago, the Senate, by unanimous (81-0) vote, confirmed a new military leader who was bringing with him a brand-new strategic approach to the fight in that country.

The majority of Americans seem to have the same misconceptions about the relation between this “new” strategy and the so-called ‘Surge’ now as they did when it was first proposed. Allow us to provide some clarity: The ‘Surge’ – an increase in boots on the ground in Iraq – was never the strategy itself. The increase in troop levels, requested by General Petraeus, was one of many components (or “strategic shifts,” as national security advisor Stephen Hadley called them in a January 29 Washington Post op-ed, in which he even then was attempting to clear up the misconception that the ‘surge’ was the strategy in its entirety) necessary to implement the sweeping new strategy, which radically altered our country’s course in Iraq and sought to solve the problems and shore up the weaknesses which four years of fighting had created and exposed.

In truth, the strategy itself was and is far more intricate and multi-pronged than a simple ‘surge’ in troops. The main focus of the new strategy has been the Baghdad Security Plan – a strategy focused on the capital city of Iraq, which seeks (with increased Iraqi and American forces) to permanently rid neighborhoods of terrorists and extremists and keep them that way, and to secure the population.

The new strategy in Baghdad was to be met with new rules of engagement, set to ensure that Iraqi and U.S. forces could pursue lawbreakers and terrorists regardless of their community or sect, and to be followed by economic assistance and reconstruction aid – including billions of dollars in Iraqi funds – which would combine to offer employment and the prospect of better lives for average citizens.

While this operation has been ongoing since Gen. Petraeus’s appointment in January, troop levels in Iraq have just recently reached the amount necessary to fully implement the BSP and to undertake the other aspects of the new strategy.

Outside of the Baghdad Security Plan, the new strategy stepped up the fight against al Qaeda – the most brutal and violent foe we have in that country, and the one which has the most to lose from the victory of US and Iraqi forces. Beginning in Anbar Province – until six months ago, the most-written-off area of Iraq, and a sanctuary for AQI – US forces have systematically driven al Qaeda from their strongholds, rallying tribes, clans, and groups of all sects to the cause of liberty and of a free Iraq.

Anbar is hardly mentioned in the news media at all today, and Michael Yon recently reported having spent a month there without hearing a shot fired (an amazing development, as gunfire had been as common a background noise in Iraq as traffic horns are in America). The US military is currently wrapping up week three of Operation Arrowhead Ripper, the largest offensive since 2003 and one aimed directly at rooting out and destroying al Qaeda in Baqubah (in Diyala Province just north of Baghdad), one of their final Iraqi strongholds.

Each place that the coalition openly fights against al Qaeda, the citizens and tribesmen join in, standing side by side with Americans – their differences forgotten – and helping to win back their neighborhoods, their cities, and their country. This is the truth about what is happening on the ground – the truth that the American people do not hear, and Ms. Pelosi will not say.

Other aspects of this new strategy included doubling the number of provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) in Iraq. These civilian-led units have been helping the Iraqi government distribute development aid across the country; this year, 10 new civilian PRTs have been be embedded with U.S. combat brigades. The training of Iraqi security forces has been accelerated, with benchmarks set to track progress, and numerical goals decided upon to best bolster the size and effectiveness of those forces. Contrary to popular belief, training and supporting Iraqi troops has been and will remain our military’s essential and primary mission in that country.

The Iraqi people do by and large want us there – not forever, but until they are secure enough to take over themselves. Taking a shattered state – especially one like Iraq, which, being comprised of people who think of themselves as members of a tribe, sect, clan, or mahalla, has no sense whatsoever of itself – and making it whole again is a long and arduous task. It is doubly so when an effective insurgency is being waged against the rebuilding force – and make no mistake about it: this insurgency is effective.

This is no easy task. It comes with a cost measured in much more than funds or effort – in the cost of young men and women, husbands and wives, brothers and friends. Yet that cost is outweighed by this simple fact: Failure here is not an option.

There is no “Plan B” to success in Iraq. If we fail there, the Iraqi government and its security institutions will almost certainly crumble under the pressure of widespread sectarian violence, ethnic cleansing, and extrajudicial killing. The chaos, which would spread across the country like wildfire, is likely to engulf the entire region. Even if it did not reach that far, our withdrawal would give al Qaeda exactly what they have so often asked for: a base of operations outside of Afghanistan, from which they can carry out attacks on American interests and on our homeland itself.

The American military can win this fight. What is needed is for the American people, and their leaders, to put politics aside in favor of presenting a united front against those who, regardless what concessions we make, will do their utmost to kill us. The effort will take time; all successful counterinsurgencies have. The time that winning the peace in Iraq will take is compounded by the fact that, for the Iraqi people to decide to put their lives on the line and to stand together against their murderous enemies, we must first convince them that we are committed to staying there to support them for as long as it takes.

Their skepticism on the latter is justified. We fled the battlefield in Vietnam, in Beirut, and in Somalia after being hit in the mouth by our adversaries. Furthermore – and more relevantly – we abandoned the Iraqis in 1991, after encouraging them to revolt against Saddam and promising to stand behind them while they did so. It will take far more than three weeks at full strength and a few more months of operations against the insurgency in Iraq to convince the people there that we will stick with them for the long haul; however, without doing so, we cannot succeed.

Giving in and pulling out of Iraq is exactly what al Qaeda and our other enemies have demanded of us. Despite the brief respite that such a decision would appear able to provide our “war-weary” nation and military, such a decision would bring nothing but harm, both to Iraq and, in the long run, to America. We were attacked on September 11th by the same enemy we are now facing in Iraq. Surrendering the field to them would be nonsensical and unacceptable, striking a self-inflicted, fatal blow at our war on terror, and inviting more attacks against ourselves here at home.

Along with the new strategy in Iraq came the author of America’s brand new field manual on counterinsurgency, General David Petraeus. Since his arrival, American and Iraqi forces have made marked and significant progress – and he has given our military confidence in our ability to succeed. But there is simply no rational point to giving such a man the task at hand without the resources or time to see it through. We are not surprised, of course. Perhaps, as some of us expected at the time, that was the plan all along.

So here hangs the balance of our mission, and the goal of a just, free, and peaceful world teeters near the brink. Either Ms. Pelosi has in mind a more ingenious strategy for victory then Gen. Petraeus – her brilliant strategic mind honed on the battlegrounds of late night games of Battleship – or she is unwilling to bear the political penalty with her base, and thus has become an eager fan of American defeat. And the sooner there are images of helicopters skirting away from the tops of buildings, the outstretched hands of the Iraqi people left behind to be devoured by our common foe, the better.

You will forgive us for suspecting the latter.

To Be a Liberal

2007-07-11T10:27:00.000-05:00

You have to accept the following:

1. You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by lack of Federal funding.

2. You have to believe that the school system that can't teach a fourth grader how to read is some how the best qualified to teach those same children all about sex.

3. You have to believe that guns, in the hands of law abiding Americans, are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese communists.

4. You have to believe there was no art before Federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the earth's climate, and more affected by Americans driving SUVs.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to be against capital punishment but support abortion on demand.

8. You have to believe that business creates oppression and governments create prosperity.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists from Seattle do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that the U.S. Military, not evil and tyrannical regimes, start wars.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, General Robert E. Lee, or Thomas Edison.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

Asshatery at it's clearest.

Cap tip: FS reader

Just A'picken

2007-07-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

Clearly a Music Phase

2007-07-07T16:07:00.000-05:00

Anger

2007-07-06T06:59:00.000-05:00

As I (ze Fastest Squirrel) see it, Iraq has outdistanced the economy as the number one issue in America, and there is no way the GOP can take this albatross off the political table. Why? Because if the Bush administration fails in Iraq (or is perceived to have failed), the Party has lost one of its most important presumptions: that Republicans are better able, are more competent, and have better ideas at defending this nation than Democrats. Once that presumption is lost, so have our chances for the Presidency and for majorities in Congress in 2008. Who knows how long we would be in the minority after that. The only reason we're not doing worse is because of the well-defined political incompetence of Pelosi and general idiocy of Harry Reid.

The best answer to me, therefore, is for the Bush administration to commit all available resources to turning Iraq around. Folks like Lugar and Domenici and other lukewarm Republicans aren't helping, but you can't fully blame them (though I could be persuaded otherwise). Bush is a failing president and he's lost a huge amount of political capital because of his personnel decisions, his poor ability to communicate, his judgment, his inability to move legislation and his not governing as a conservative. Nevertheless, the success of our party hinges on how Iraq unfolds.

Riddle me this. When was the last time that you saw GWB on TV rallying the troops? When was the last time you received a "personal email" from GWB asking for your support (last election cycle, anyone)? I'm pissed. Waaayyyy too pissed.

Brilliant!

2007-07-06T06:31:00.001-05:00

Doing The Right Thing

2007-07-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

The Best Baseball clip... EVER!

Independence Day

2007-07-04T05:23:00.000-05:00

My annual post about The Men...

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and
Tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated.
But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his
ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and
properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to
move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall,
Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr, noted that the British
General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was
destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves,
Returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.
These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War.
We didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government!

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we
shouldn't. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!
Patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games.

This was from an email a friend sent me years ago...

Wow.

2007-07-02T07:02:00.000-05:00

cap tip to Sexy.

Sorry for the Absence

2007-06-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

In penance, I present the following:

You're welcome.

A Joke

2007-06-15T08:10:00.000-05:00

An 85-year-old man was requested by his doctor for a sperm count as part of his physical exam.

The doctor gave the man a jar and said,'Take this jar home and bring back a semen sample tomorrow.'

The next day the 85-year-old man reappeared at the doctor's office and gave him the jar, which was as clean & empty as on the previous day.

The doctor asked what happened and the man explained, 'Well, doc, it's like this - first I tried with my right hand, but nothing.

" Then I tried with my left hand, but still nothing.

" Then I asked my wife for help. She tried with her right hand, then with her left, still nothing.

“She tried with her mouth, first with the teeth in, then with teeth out and still nothing.

“We even called up Arleen, the lady next door & she tried too, first with both hands, then an armpit, and she even tried squeezing it between her knees and still nothing.

The doctor was shocked! 'You asked your neighbour?'

The old man replied, “Yep, none of us could get that damned jar open!”

Happy 232nd Birthday Army!

2007-06-14T13:11:00.000-05:00

That's right! The United States Army was founded on 14 June 1775. Anyone who has seen the Army Colors with all of it's battle streamers will be awed. Here are the campaigns fought by the U.S. Army. Sobering, no?

Revolutionary War

LEXINGTON 1775
TICONDEROGA 1775
BOSTON 1775-1776
QUEBEC 1775, 1776
CHARLESTON 1776, 1780
LONG ISLAND 1776
TRENTON 1776
PRINCETON 1777
SARATOGA 1777
BRANDYWINE 1777
GERMANTOWN 1777
MONMOUTH 1778
SAVANNAH 1778, 1779
COWPENS 1781
GUILFORD COURT HOUSE 1781
YORKTOWN 1781

War of 1812

CANADA 1812-1815
CHIPPEWA 1814
LUNDY'S LANE 1814
BLADENSBURG 1814
MCHENRY 1814
NEW Orleans 1814-1815

Mexican War

PALO ALTO 1846
RESACA DE LA PALMA 1846
MONTERY 1846
BUENA VISTA 1847
VERA CRUZ 1847
CERRO GORDO 1847
CONTRERAS 1847
CHURUBUSCO 1847
MOLINA DEL RAY 1847
CHAPULTEPEC 1847

Civil War

SUMTER 1861
BULL RUN 1861 ("FIRST MANASSAS") FOR CONFEDERATE SERVICE)
HENRY & DONELSON 1862
MISSISSIPPI RIVER 1862-1863
PENINSULA 1862
SHILOH 1862
VALLEY 1862
MANASSAS 1862 ("SECOND MANASSAS") FOR CONFEDERATE SERVICE
ANTIETAM 1862 ("SHARPSBURG") FOR CONFEDERATE SERVICE
FREDERICKSBURG 1862
MURFREESBOROUGH 1862-1863
CHANCELLORSVILLE 1863
GETTYSBURG 1863
VICKSBURG 1863
CHICKAMAUGA 1863
CHATTANOOGA 1863
WILDERNESS 1864
ATLANTA 1864
SPOTSYLVANIA 1864
COLD HARBOR 1864
PETERSBURG 1864-1865
SHENANDOAH 1864
FRANKLIN 1864
NASHVILLE 1864
APPOMATTOX 1865

Indian Campaign

MIAMI 1790 - 1795
TIPPECANOE 1811
CREEKS 1813-1814, 1836 - 1837
SEMINOLES 1817-1818, 1835-1842, 1855-1858
BLACK HAWK 1832
COMMANCHES 1867 - 1875
MODOCS 1872 - 1873
APACHES 1873, 1885 - 1886
LITTLE BIG HORN 1876 - 1877
NEZ PERCES 1877
BANNOCKS 1878
CHEYENNES 1878 - 1879
UTES 1879 - 1880
PINE RIDGE 1890 – 1891

Spanish American War

SANTIAGO 1898
PUERTO RICO 1898
MANILA 1898

China Relief Expedition

TIENTSIN 1900
YANG-TSUN 1900
PEKING 1900

Philippine Campaign

MANILA 1899
ILOILO 1899
MALOLOS 1899
LAGUNA DE BAY 1899
SAN ISIDRO 1899
ZAPOTE RIVER 1899
CAVITE 1899-1900
TARLAC 1899
SAN FABIAN 1899
MINDANAO 1902-1905
JOLO 1905, 1906, 1913

Mexican Border Service

MEXICO 1916-1917

World War I

CAMBRAI 1917
SOMME DEFENSIVE 1918
LYS 1918
AISNE 1918
MONTDIDIER-NOYON 1918
CHAMPAGNE-MARNE 1918
AISNE-MARNE 1918
SOMME OFFENSIVE 1918
OISE-AISNE 1918
TPRES-LYS 1918
ST. MIHIEL 1918
MEUSE-ARGONNE 1918
VITTORIA VENETO 1918

American Campaign

ANTISUBMARINE 1941 -1945

Asiatic – Pacific Theater

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 1941-1942
BURMA 1941-1942
CENTRAL PACIFIC 1941-1943
EAST INDIES 1942
INDIA-BURMA 1942 - 1945
AIR OFFENSIVE, JAPAN 1942 - 1945
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS 1942 - 1943
CHINA DEFENSIVE 1942 - 1945
PAPUA 1942-1943
GUADALCANAL 1942-1943
NEW GUINEA 1943 - 1944
NORTHERN SOLOMONS 1943 - 1944
EASTERN MANDATES 1944
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO 1943 - 1944
WESTERN PACIFIC 1944 - 1945
LEYTE 1944 - 1945
LUZON 1944 - 1945
CENTRAL BURMA 1945
SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES 1945
RYUKYUS 1945
CHINA OFFENSIVE 1945

European – African – Middle Eastern Campaign

EGYPT-LIBYA 1942-1943
AIR OFFENSIVE, EUROPE 1942-1944
ALGERIA-FRENCH MOROCCO 1942
TUNISIA 1942-1943
SICILY 1943
NAPLES-FOGGIA 1943-1944
ANZIO 1944
ROME-ARNO 1944
NORMANDY 1944
NORTHERN FRANCE 1944
SOUTHERN FRANCE 1944
NORTH APENNINES 1944-1945
RHINELAND 1944-1945
ARDENNES-ALSACE 1944-1945
CENTRAL EUROPE 1945
PO VALLEY 1945

Korean Service

UN DEFENSIVE 1950
UN OFFENSIVE 1950
CCF INTERVENTION 1950-1951
FIRST UN COUNTEROFFENSIVE 1951
CCF SPRING OFFENSIVE 1951
UN SUMMER-FALL OFFENSIVE 1951
SECOND KOREAN WINTER 1951-1952
KOREA SUMMER-FALL 1952
THIRD KOREAN WINTER 1952-1953
KOREA SUMMER 1953

Vietnam Service

VIETNAM ADVISORY 1962 - 1965
VIETNAM DEFENSE 1965
VIETNAM COUNTEROFFENSIVE 1965-1966
VIETNAM COUNTEROFFENSIVE, PHASE II 1966-1967
VIETNAM COUNTEROFFENSIVE, PHASE III 1967-1968
TET COUNTEROFFENSIVE 1968
VIETNAM COUNTEROFFENSIVE, PHASE IV 1968
VIETNAM COUNTEROFFENSIVE, PHASE V 1968
VIETNAM COUNTEROFFENSIVE, PHASE VI, 1968-1969
TET 69/COUNTEROFFENSIVE, 1969
VIETNAM SUMMER-FALL 1969
VIETNAM WINTER-SPRING 1970
SANCTUARY COUNTEROFFENSIVE 1970
VIETNAM COUNTEROFFENSIVE, PHASE VII, 1970-1971
CONSOLIDATION I 1971
CONSOLIDATION II 1971-1972
VIETNAM CEASE-FIRE 1972-1973

Armed Forces Expeditionary

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 1965-1966
GRENADA 1983
PANAMA 1989-1990

Southwest Asia Service

DEFENSE OF SAUDI ARABIA 1990-1991
LIBERATION AND DEFENSE OF KUWAIT 1991
SOUTHWEST ASIA CEASE-FIRE 1991-1995

Kosovo Campaign

KOSOVO AIR CAMPAIGN 1999
KOSOVO DEFENSE CAMPAIGN

Afghanistan Campaign

Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Campaign

Iraq Campaign

A battle streamer is placed with the Army Colors for each campaign. I can't put up pictures at work, but I'll do so this evening.

GO ARMY!

Twenty Years Ago Today

2007-06-12T16:56:00.000-05:00

President Reagan stood in the shadow of the Berlin Wall and demanded that the Soviet Bear "...tear down this wall!"

Watch and remember. Remember that there was a time when leadership had a voice. As long as we don't forget, it will come again. Please God, give a leader.

By The Power of Gay-Skull

2007-06-11T14:41:00.001-05:00

HA!

This from Cracked Magazine! The relevant exerpt:

CARTOON: He-Man

LESSON: It’s OK to be gay.

Look at this guy: golden locks cut in a tasteful bob, buff biceps, tanned, toned, hairless torso, a magic sword and most importantly, fabulous powers. What’s more, He-Man invites his handsome friends, the Masters of the Universe, to come hang out in his castle anytime. Of course Skeletor and his fugly cohorts are never allowed access to the secrets of He-Man’s dark, dry palace.

Yes, we had He-Man toys, like Ram-Man, Trap-Jaw and even Castle Grayskull. We also had a favorite pair of tighty whiteys that had He-Man on one cheek and Skeletor on the other, battling over our asshole. But did merely owning and wearing that underwear make us gay?

How it affected us as adults: As regards the above question, it’s a very complex matter, but in a word: yes. (For more on depictions of homosexuality in '80s cartoons, please see Care Bears.)

Stuff Worth Repeating #6

2007-06-09T10:06:00.000-05:00

A buddy of mine just lost a close foxhole buddy. I sent this along to him.

Abe Lincoln once said in a letter of condolence to a young friend who had just lost her father:

"In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say; and you need only to believe it, to feel better at once."

Remembering D-Day

2007-06-06T09:46:00.000-05:00

I cannot do the memory of D-Day the same honors that others have bestowed before. I could try, but I would fail.

President Reagan said much and said it well. His speech commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the bravery at Point-Du-Hoc are stirring. It begins:

"We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers--the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war."

Read the rest.

UPDATE: Found some cool video (via MKH)

Horn of Africa

2007-06-04T18:46:00.001-05:00

People seem to forget that the GWOT is the GLOBAL War On Terrorism. This includes many places that are truly forgotten. Having spent some time in the armpit known as "Somalia" I can honestly say that we should just bomb the shit out of them. Oh, that's right we are! The icing on the cake is that the non-SOF part of the Navy gets its freak on! Nice.

Video: Warning, it is from the AP, so could be completely contrived.

Squirrely Angst

2007-06-03T17:19:00.000-05:00

Okay lurkers, readers, and other assorted "accidental tourists." I'm not feeling the love. People stop in, but they don't say hi. They don't pick up a cold one and hang out on the couch with me. (Though I haven't been posting all that often lately). Nope, lack of love makes me squirrely. So, as punishment, I'm going to inflict upon you: two silly advertisements. Yeah, that'll show you!

Pinch.

More Pinch.

Not Alone

2007-06-01T08:45:00.000-05:00

For some time now I have felt an increasing disquiet with the Administration. Unlike many, I'm not upset over the war or its cost. I'm upset because the President hasn't done anything to forward the conservative cause. Nothing. The only feather in the cap was two conservative Supreme Court Justices, and that was the result of conservatives being willing to commit hari kari over Harriet Myers. WTF? Anyway, I have felt pretty alone in this feeling. I haven't reached out to other conservatives or even taken much time to read about this subject... until today. Today I read the lovely Peggy Noonan's piece on this subject. It says in part:

"The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain." [squirrel emphasis] Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.

But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."

At least I don't feel crazy. I'm not the only conservative that is ready to tar and feather. No wonder the RNC is freaking out. Not one red penny from the Squirrels, you jerks.

MMGW a Myth

2007-06-01T05:44:00.000-05:00

So, global warming may be happening (Lord knows it is hot here in Virginia), but the idea that GW is a MM (man-made) phenomenon has given rise to such stupidity as Carbon Credits and Al (The Goreacle) Gore. Pulease! People must be really, really stupid to fall for the Gore and Moore. Buncha Tools. Anyway, watch this video to counter all the idiocy. If you can watch this and still consider MMGW a possibility, there really isn't any hope for you. I will, however, torment you by countering your carbon credits.

Good Day!

Memorial Day 2007

2007-05-26T20:23:00.000-05:00

It is that time of year again. It is time to bow our heads and tip back a cold one for our fallen brothers. Last year I posted about the Memorial Day of my youth and American Flag etiquette. This year, Memorial Day has snuck up on me. I will take my son on Rolling Thunder tomorrow morning and will no doubt get too much sun. I'll be sure to wear sunglasses as blatant displays of patriotism cause me to cry red, white, and blue. On another Memorial Day, some old buddies and I spent a day looking up other old buddies. My wife snapped a picture of the three of us looking for "Joe."

God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

Looking for Joe

Perspective

2007-05-25T21:03:00.000-05:00

You probably saw this at the Dawn Patrol, but it is worth reposting here.

Wicked Awesome Ink

2007-05-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

Buckethead over at Minor Perfidy wrote up an awesome article about this tattoo.

I'll take that soul, please.

A snippet:

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host —
by the Divine Power of God —
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

And he found some background on the origins of the prayer.

“I do not remember the exact year. One morning the great Pope Leo XIII had celebrated a Mass and, as usual, was attending a Mass of thanksgiving. Suddenly, we saw him raise his head and stare at something above the celebrant’s head. He was staring motionlessly, without batting an eye. His expression was one of horror and awe; the color and look on his face changing rapidly. Something unusual and grave was happening in him.

"Finally, as though coming to his senses, he lightly but firmly tapped his hand and rose to his feet. He headed for his private office. His retinue followed anxiously and solicitously, whispering: 'Holy Father, are you not feeling well? Do you need anything?' He answered: 'Nothing, nothing.' About half an hour later, he called for the Secretary of the Congregation of Rites and, handing him a sheet of paper, requested that it be printed and sent to all the ordinaries around the world. What was that paper? It was the prayer that we recite with the people at the end of every Mass. It is the plea to Mary and the passionate request to the Prince of the heavenly host, [St. Michael: Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle] beseeching God to send Satan back to hell."

Sweeeeet.

Time

2007-05-12T06:22:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe how quickly the week was spent. Of course, they say that time moves more quickly as you get older. I always thought that was a myth, but my own experience tells me differently. What is it about age that causes the velocity of time to increase? I have a theory.

Watching my (nearly) one year-old, I have noticed that she is aware of everything. Nothing escapes her notice, even if for only a moment. For example, we were driving the other day and she probably noticed: the lush green foliage (gotta love spring), all the flowering bushes and plants, the sparkle of the other clean cars, the smell of the leather underneath her seat, the baby CD playing in the background (seriously, kill me), etcetera. The list could go on forever.

Compare that to what I noticed. How closely the guy behind me was following, whether or not I was going to make the light, thinking about what I wanted to accomplish that day, etcetera.

The fundamental difference between my daughter and I is that I have already seen and experienced everything that she observed on our drive. I may have noticed foliage, flowers, and a snazzy car, but I moved on because it is more of the same. I believe that time moves more quickly as we age because we process our current experience through the filter of past experience. We get flashes of new, but we generally don't appreciate it.

A couple years ago, Sexy Squirrel and I drove cross country. While it didn't last long enough, the new sights, sounds, and people definitely made a difference in how quickly time seemed to be ticking. Also, we didn't worry much about when we would get somewhere, we just opened the moon roof and enjoyed! Also, at the end of it all, we eventually took nearly three weeks off. Now THAT is a real vacation!

I'm sure that there are more elements to it, but that is one Squirrel's view.

2007 Milblog Conference

2007-05-06T08:27:00.000-05:00

It started with a meeting at the Carpool in Arlington, Virginia... just down the street from the Westin Hotel, where the Conference took place.

Happy hour was awesome. I met a ton of people and should have taken notes. The funny thing was that Blackfive was the only person that I would recognize from his face time on CNN. So I hooked up with Teresa as we searched for fellow milbloggers, and then we hung out till Matt showed up. I met people from The Weekly Standard, ThreatsWatch (hey Mike), Wired Magazine (Noah... cool cat), Buckethead, lots of Soldiers Angels (donate now), Andi from Andi's World, Jim Thompson (Sgt. Hook), John Noonan (OPFOR), Sean and "pink-haired-wife" from Doc in the Box, ArmyWifeToddlerMom (who is a force of nature, BTW), and of course Blackfive. I have to leave my last shout-out to Squirrel Lurker, Rich Lowe. Rich was the only person who I didn't know and had read my crapblog. He was a great guy and I only wish that I had more time to spend with him. He has actually motivated me to tell more stories and throw some Squirrel Spin on things. Thanks Rich... you can still lurk, but I hope that you don't (please send me an email). There are tons of others, but the beer has ruined that part of my memory.

We drank too much and I had to disappear a bit for some work stuff, but I rejoined the group at the Westin for the "formal" party. Of course, I had come from the range and looked like the proto-typical doorkicker in utilities pants and khaki ballcap. Ah well, at least I got to attend. I had some more drinks (I still owe Noah a cold one for saving a cashless Squirrel) and must have looked pretty scary. I talked to Mary Katherine Ham for a moment and she couldn't seem to get away fast enough. Nice woman, but clearly squirrly about the Squirrel. LOL! Too much fun.

Anyway, I managed to sneak out at some point, only to have Buckethead yell at me from a balcony. Thanks. Thanks for pointing out my weak exit. Ah well, at least he didn't think I was a zombie as I shambled back to Carpool (where my damned Visa sits to this minute).

Great success. I got to have some milblogger time and still had the weekend with the family (which was awesome)! Now I get to go back and see what happened by reading everyone else's blogs. Nice.

LOL!

2007-05-04T08:27:00.000-05:00

The Landlord

GOP Presidential Debate No. 1

2007-05-04T08:17:00.000-05:00

Well, I missed the debate (on purpose). As I've said here before, I'll not comment on the candidates until we are much further along in the process. My perusal of conservative sites that I trust don't really show a winner, but there was consensus about a definite loser... Rudy Giuliani. That's all I know.

Okay, I said I'll not comment, but if I ran the world, Fred Thompson would be my President.

Oh FWIW, I'd also have Pamela Anderson leading the Presidential Council on Boobies.

Ace Slays Me

2007-05-01T13:29:00.000-05:00

I compel you to go and read this post by Ace. Now, dammit!

Okay, now check out the comments. My favorite from "iowahawk."

This is the story of Joe McGlock
The boy who was born with a corkscrew c***
He spent all his life on a desparate hunt
To find a girl with a corkscrew c***
He found her
He f***ed her
And then he fell dead
Cuz her corkscrew c*** had a lefthand thread

Burma Shave

Seriously, people at work think I have a laughing problem. Well, they can go duck themselves! HA!

Join The Squirrel and Blackfive This Friday!

2007-04-30T18:54:00.000-05:00

If you're in the D.C. Metro area, I'll be joining some fellow milbloggers for happy hour. Find more information here!

The State of the Squirrel

2007-04-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

What can I tell you (assuming that anyone still checks into this crappy blog)?!? It has been a really busy year so far.

1) I've been on the road for nine weeks so far. At least the money is good. You know, I used to enjoy traveling a little bit. The excitement of airports, hotel rooms, and an excuse to dine out caused my little squirrel nipples to get perky. Now? Not so much. It is actually more tiring than the routine domestic life we lead here at the Squirrel's Nest. But, I was also promoted recently and am enjoying the spoils of corporate warfare (I'm a winner, dammit)!

2) Funny story: One morning a couple of months ago Sexy Squirrel rolls and says, "Jeez, I fell like I'm pregnant again... but I don't know how that's possible!"

I think, "Man, I'm really losing my touch" but play along and say something like, "Well, I've been on the road a lot and our mailman is Chinese. Soooo... ." Surprisingly, the canned laughter track that I had expected didn't appear. Hilarity didn't ensue. "Crap, she must actually be pregnant."

Off I went to the pharmacy to get a magic peeing stick. Needless to say that it turned blue AS I threw it to her. Yep, we are due in November. NICE!

3) The business I started with some partners is taking up a massive amount of time and draws extensively on my reserves of talent and energy. I'm really optimistic, but it is a nerve wracking experience.

4) I'm still slowing working on getting my MBA. Pretty mundane, but another time sucker.

5) My 11 month-old daughter and 11 year-old son are the apples of my eye and keep me motivated!

Anyway, not a very helpful update, but one that lets you know that I'm still alive and kickin'!

Now For Something Lighter...

2007-04-19T13:09:00.000-05:00

A woman pregnant with triplets was walking down the street when a
masked robber ran out of a bank and shot her three times in the
stomach. Luckily the babies were OK. The surgeon decided to leave the
bullets in because it was too risky to operate. She gave birth to two
healthy daughters and a healthy son.

All was fine for 16 years, and then one daughter walked into the room
in tears. "What's wrong?" asked the mother. "I was taking a tinkle and
this bullet came out," replied the daughter. The mother told her it
was okay and explained what happened 16 years ago.

About a week later the second daughter walked into the room in tears.
"Mom, I was taking a tinkle and this bullet came out." Again the
mother told her not to worry and explained what happened 16 years ago.

A week later her son walked into the room in tears. "It's okay"
said the Mom, "I know what happened. You were taking a tinkle and a
bullet came out."

"No," said the boy, "I was playing with myself and I shot the dog."

via email

VA Tech

2007-04-19T13:07:00.000-05:00

Evil still walks the earth. I watched the douchebag's video and was amazed at his insincere and plastic attempts at painting himself as the victim. Rest in Hell, Cho.

My prayers are with the friends and families of the victims.

Our Hapless Enemy

2007-04-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

Content Warning!

This Is What Happens...

via Ace

Funny

2007-04-10T15:43:00.000-05:00

Stuff Worth Repeating #5

2007-03-27T19:26:00.000-05:00

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

- John Stuart Mill

A Gathering of Eagles

2007-03-22T07:22:00.000-05:00

So my brother, a buddy, and I all went to the Gathering of Eagles last weekend. Wow! What an experience!

The irony rising from the ANSWER crowd was as palpable as a humid summer’s day in the deep South. I realize that much of my observations were covered elsewhere... more eloquently... by smarter folks, but I’d like to share my humble experience with those of you who couldn’t attend.

Our day started early with a ride on the DC metro. We (my son, brother, and friend) opted not to drive and park down by the Mall. I was concerned that my VFW stickers would result in some long, key width, scratches down the length of my pickup. So, we got on at the Vienna metro stop and were amazed at the number of veterans that we picked up along every stop as we headed down town. I was doubly amazed at the number of veterans utilizing canes. One joked that he may not be able to move quickly, but that he could “reach out and touch someone a mite easier.” Nice.

That was the feeling. As more veterans met along the route, the sense of comradeship and sense of duty increased. I think that we all hoped that others would show up, but were worried that we would be the only ones there. What does that say about conservatives?

I expected to find a mass of protesters making their way down to the Mall along with us at 7:30am. I was legitimately surprised to find nearly all the veterans massed about 8:00am. After thinking a moment, I mentioned to an SF old timer that it said a lot about the vet that we all make muster at the break of dawn, no matter our age. He mentioned that it was even more remarkable that we hadn’t conducted a Mad Minute. Too true.

As the morning drew onto the afternoon, the Opposition (organized by ANSWER) grew in number. Wow, they were young. Except for the left-over hippies and middle-aged professors, they were all just kids. Kids who had come (late morning) from local universities like George Washington University, Georgetown, American University, and George Mason… had this “massive protest” occurred in Richmond, it would have sported about a thousand die-hards (and even less “Eagles,” BTW). Nonetheless, their passion was laid out on their sleeves. I mean, they were really belting out the chants. What a bunch of mindless assholes.

That being said, my next observation regards organization and intent. When we arrived at the muddy pit that was the Gathering of Eagles (there was rain, sleet, and snow on Friday) we noticed a ripping (wicked windy) sea of American flags and patriotic songs playing. Later there would be at least a half-dozen speakers that would speak of God, America, and Service to both. Standing over by the Lincoln Memorial was a stark contrast and clearly outlined the difference between the two.

ANSWER and their ilk had some wicked-awesome music pumpin’ through massive speakers. Some dude with a reggae accent broke in periodically with important information (“We’ve got Wisconsin! Wisconsin is in de house! Stop de war in Iraq!”) that lent their voice to “de Cause”… whenever these voice-overs interrupted the inevitable rendition of “War.”

War is something that I despise
For it means destruction of innocent lives
For it means tears in thousands of mothers' eyes
When their sons go out to fight to give their lives.

Yet another irony is that most of the veterans were singing along. Apparently, this is a song that crosses many lines. The retired vet that I was standing next to said, “Man, I love this song, too.” Yep, guilty. Somehow, however, I feel like I’ve earned the right to agree. I’ve paid (and witnessed) the price.

Bascially, ANSWER has organized a huge party. There were no speeches (until much later at the Pentagon, apparently) and no attempts at dialogue. It was simply a draw for the old and radical, and the young and gullible.

We were extremely fortunate to have a number of dedicated organizers at the rally. While I’m sure that I can’t know everyone who lent themselves to this enterprise, I did see several placards carried by the Freepers. It was a picture of Saddam in a noose (pre-hung) with a caption of “Sic Sempre Tyrannis” (Thus always to tyrants). Indeed. While there were some pre-fab signs that read things along the lines of, “The War is either HERE, or THERE” or “Peace through superior fire power” or our own Mr. Hahn’s “Go to hell traitors. You dishonor our dead on hallowed ground.” I applaud you, sir!

The Opposition, however, was much more predictable (and yet strangely not so). The vast majority of signs were pre-fabricated and handed out by ANSWER. Some of the more inventive signs I saw included “Capitalists Against the War” (yeah, right)… “Radical Queers Against the War” (no doubt), and something about not having ‘merely a war, but a “class war.”’ Brilliant. No dialogue. No debate. No sense of fear. No knowledge of the world outside their own. No ability to reason. No meaningful future. Sad. Really sad.

We got bored. We decided to move toward the porta-potties. The sidewalks between the Lincoln Memorial and the Eagles area was absolutely packed with veterans. There were few liberals that made it through the area, as far as I could see. I stopped one jerk (headed into Eagle territory from ANSWER) with long hair, dressed in ACUs and with make-up depicting a head gunshot wound. He said that we had to all work together to end the war. I scornfully said that he was clearly looking for a confrontation and that I was pretty offended as I had a close buddy who died from such a wound (from an insurgent). Unsurprisingly, he just moved on. I really wanted to clean his clock.

We finally reached the porta-potties. We had to wait for a long line at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. Just getting by was difficult with the lines of vets who were waiting to see it for the first time. That was a pretty moving experience by itself. The blue potties were yet another clever taunt of the protestors. The first had a sign that read, “Jane Fonda’s Field Office.” I don’t care which side you’re on, that’s pretty damn funny!

Shortly thereafter, we ran into a very young woman dressed in pink, attempting to engage a group of leather-clad veterans in some sort of dialogue. As I was walking up (and eventually stopped) I heard:

Code-pinker: “Seriously. Why don’t we spend all that money on sending kids to college?!?”

Stone-faced Vet: “I did that. Three goddamn times.”

Code-pinker: “No. Seriously. Why can’t you just listen to ‘us’?”

Code-pinker: “No, seriously!”

Stone-faced Vet: “……….”

Code-pinker: “Seriously, you people are impossible to talk to!”

Me: “See, when you use a term like ‘you people’ you let us all know that you aren’t interested in dialogue. You think that we should have just acquiesced to your superior experience and wisdom . Too bad you have neither.

Code-pinker: “… Seriously!”

Too easy. We find ourselves bored again and find ourselves on Constitution, near the entrance to the Eagles site. There are a couple of Ignoramus’ that would like to convince the nearest Vietnam Vets that they are misguided in trusting the government. These überinformed liberals were, in turn, informed that they were correct… a Congress led by Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid shouldn’t be trusted. There was a stunned pause by the liberal at the depth of knowledge displayed by the veterans (or possibly the recalculation of a miscalculation). Needless to say, the moonbats retreated to their ‘posse.’

For a full picture. I have a friend whom I will call “Bill.” Bill is a federal law-enforcement agent who is undercover with the radical left. He was with the Opposition folks and gave me a rare glimpse into the reaction inside the radical’s camp (a comprehensive post about his experience is forth-coming). He said that the typical reaction to the Eagles was one of incredulousness. He heard most describe the single-finger-showing vets as “illiterate hooligans.” “Unintelligent” and “stupid” were other oft-used descriptors. Nice. We, however, never used the word “illiterate.” Instead, I heard words like “spoiled,” “ungrateful,” and “ignorant.” I also heard several vets utilize their First Amendment right to express by explaining “Fuh Q!”

He also mentioned that EVERYONE was intimidated by the counter-protest. Those who had planned to make trouble (the anarchists) and those who had never met a veteran (all the rest) were absolutely in awe of the turnout of the veterans and other supporters. It was as if all the polls had somehow turned upside down. Bill said that this was the first time that any protestors had encountered any meaningful opposition SINCE THE VIETNAM ERA. I suppose that means the “silent majority” ought to be deeply ashamed. Here the protestors have gone along (albeit nearly completely ignorant of reality) without opposition since the onset of OIF!

By the way, I consider a hard-core dude, and I was moved to tears on a number of occasions. First, the feeling of camaraderie in the face of the Opposition was awesome. The second is the common theme among the Vietnam Vets. It went something along the lines of: Nobody stood up for me while I was in the fight, so if I don’t stand up for the troops… who will?

That last nearly brought me to tears every single time… and I heard it time and again. I guarantee, we youngsters got the message. We know who has our back. (Bitterness ON) Incidentally, if any RedStaters live in the D.C. area and didn’t attend… you are dead to me. I took my eleven year-old and saw many men carrying their infants in rucksacks. I’m sincerely PO’ed that more local conservatives didn’t show. Heritage? Townhall? Any conservative celebrities? Nope. Any conservative politicians? No again. ……… Oh, I get it. The veterans are left to do ALL the work. We train, fight and return to crappy conditions. We are underpaid and over-utilized, but unworthy of meaningful respect. Again, if you live in the D.C. are and didn’t attend, you should be ashamed of yourself. (Bitterness OFF) [To be fair, GOE didn't want or allow any politicians to speak... but they could have shown up in jeans and a VFW cap!]

As we stood along the Lincoln Memorial, members of the Military Veterans Motorcycle Club checked to make sure of your loyalty. Some people have questioned this practice. Let me be clear when I say that the lines between US and THEM were exquisitely clear and the only folks crossing into the aforementioned area were there to make trouble. Very few tried, and none succeeded. Have a problem with that? Show up next time and take it up with the serious men in black leather. Otherwise, I recommend you keep your own counsel!

While waiting in the ridiculously ripping wind, I found myself talking to yet another Eagle. Her name was “Carolyn,” and she was a teacher from Maine. She had driven over eight hours to be at the Wall and show her support. A woman in her 50s, she told me that she was absolutely sickened by the teachers getting hired out of college. She was sickened by their biases and their complete lack of objectivity in teaching students. “Carolyn” was simply appalled at the “best” this newer generation had to offer and came in an attempt to absolve them. I believe that she left without that absolution, but with a greater sense of personal pride and mission. She told me what an honor it was to stand beside such veterans and that she was ready to guard our flanks. She was representative of those Eagles who were non-veterans. The honor was mine. De Oppresso Libre.

Here are some non-Squirrel taken pics!

DC Gun Ban Kaput?

2007-03-09T11:06:00.000-05:00

It appears that the 3rd District Court of Appeals has ruled that the Washington, DC gun ban violates the 2nd Amendment. Duh. The ruling is here.

Interesting stuff:

To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment's civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.

See? Just when I get totally demoralized, sanity refreshes me with hope and optimism!

A Right Good Ass Kickin'

2007-03-06T09:23:00.000-05:00

No excuses. Simply put, life has overtaken my ability to dedicated any time to this blog. I actually don't really even know what is going on in the world. Hell, maybe that's not a bad thing. I know that I owe some Boer War analysis, and I will try and fill in more background. But, I'm afraid it will have to wait as I take a hiatus from blogging for the time being. Please check in from time-to-time and see if I have overcome life. Keep your powder dry!

- FS

Consumed

2007-02-28T13:55:00.000-05:00

I am currently consumed with writing a federal contract proposal. If you've never had the pleasure, it is much like being circumcised... again. I'll be back later.

An Elephant Never Forgets

2007-02-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

Mr. Nathan Nelson, over at RedState posted a piece that I wish that I had written. It begins:

The Left seems mystified by the fact that the Republican Party, minus a few defectors, simply will not give up on Iraq. Why, they wonder, would Republicans continue to insist on continuing an unpopular war that cost us during the 2006 election and is likely to cost us in 2008 if nothing changes dramatically for the better? The Leftist minority is dumbfounded that we are continuing to stand by the Iraq War on principle because they have forgotten what principle is. Consumed for over a decade with simply achieving a political majority again, they have pushed aside all of their own principles and have gone whichever way the political wind blows. Thus they cannot understand why the Republican Party won't do the same when it comes to Iraq, but they're certainly willing to capitalize on the opportunity it presents them with.

There's a simple explanation for why we won't abandon Iraq to terrorism and sectarian violence, and it can be summed up in a familiar saying: an elephant never forgets. We haven't forgotten, for example, that there were Loyalists in the late eighteenth century who would have preferred for America to never become a nation rather than going to war with the British Empire. We haven't forgotten that James Buchanan and Stephen Douglas were prepared to give Southern secessionists whatever they wanted, including indefinite slavery, in order to avoid the Civil War. We haven't forgotten that it took the sinking of the Lusitania and the death of 128 Americans, a budding alliance between Germany and Mexico, and the sinking of three American merchant ships before Woodrow Wilson finally committed us to the Allied cause in World War I. We haven't forgotten Neville Chamberlain's failed policy of appeasement, nor have we forgotten that it took Pearl Harbor for Franklin Roosevelt to commit us to beating back the fascist threat in World War II. Last, but certainly not least, we haven't forgotten that it took September 11 and the deaths of three thousand Americans before our government finally got serious about the threat of international terrorism and nations that support it - nations like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which financed Hamas and other terrorists in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Read the rest.

Idiocy Rages

2007-02-26T09:46:00.000-05:00

Just clicking around the blogsphere, I am amazed at the idiocy that has manifested itself this weekend.

Al Gore won an Oscar for his ridiculous documentary... despite actual science. The five inches we got here in Virginia actually closed most of DC. Truly, the emperor has no clothes.

Angelia Jolie was admitted to the Council on Foreign Relations. I know several members and I can't image what is hoped to be gained by this little slice of mystery. Can any serious organization do without silly PR stunts? Anyone?

60 Minutes showed a stomach-turning piece on active duty troops who are against the war. Old news, but here is the link the the real story behind this "grassroots movements." Sorry, that .04% of the military is opposed to the war. Too bad the 99.96% don't get a segment with the MSM.

James Cameron (of Titanic fame) willingly commits blasphemy as he has found the "true" story behind Christianity. As Ace might say, enjoy the barbed cock of satan, asshat.

More news is just bummin' me out. Ya'll get the gist.

Cool Videos

2007-02-24T13:03:00.000-05:00

Okay, I haven't had fun in awhile, so to relieve the stress of the last post, here is some nonsense.

This is one beach I won't be taking the wife. She would totally freak at least once an hour.

Totally crazy. Uh. Kinda.

K-Fed is a complete jackass. 10 bucks to anyone who can watch more than three minutes of this.

Have a good weekend! More Boer War next week!

Political Nostalgia

2007-02-24T12:14:00.000-05:00

I have been unable to watch the news recently. As I have mentioned before, the recklessness of the Congress and Senate (particularly in the defeatist rhetoric on the war) weighs heavily on many a veteran. The list of outrages is long... unchecked illegal immigration, talk of increasing taxes, uncontrolled spending, etc. So, I occasionally turn on Fox News to find... non-stop coverage of Anna Nicole Smith. You've got to be freakin' kidding me. Meanwhile, all the REAL news from Iraq (that I get from close friends) is stunningly positive. The "surge" is already working. Violence is decreasing, Baghdad is quieting, Al-Sadr has fled to Iran, etc. Didn't know about that? Don't be surprised that you won't get any of this from the MSM.

Where will we turn for leadership? Where are the true believers?

I don't know.

Not helpful to this question, but I long for the "old days." President Ronald Wilson Reagan. This is a man who I closely identify with my maternal grandfather. Both were truly good men with solid mores and stalwart hearts. I am not worthy of being in my grandfather's bloodline. I endeavor to live up to his example. Mea Culpa. Mea Maxima Culpa.

While there doesn't appear to be a man who is great like President Reagan, we are fortunate to have his logic, love of man, and thoughtful words to encourage and motivate us. If you have some time (say a half-hour), here is Mr. Reagan giving a speech in 1964. Replace references to Communism with Militant Islam and it is as relevant today, over forty years later. 24 minutes into the speech, is an excellent piece on surrender. Absolutely amazing. Also, reflect on the fact that you never hear this sort of persuasive speech in today's times. Any conservative who may try to give a speech of this length would be shouted down by a leftist protestor. Debate is not allowed by the Left. Free speech and the First Amendment is only defended if it aligns with leftist ideals. Interesting how conservatives politely allow liberals to talk their heads off and it is rarely reciprocated. Depressing and rage inducing.

This sort of speech simply isn't given to a wide audience nowadays. The patients have taken over the madhouse. Idiocracy reigns, and the Left is largely to blame. Thanks, dicks.

Lent

2007-02-22T10:26:00.000-05:00

So, while waiting to receive my ashes yesterday, I pondered what would be a challenging sacrifice for Lent. Many options floated through my mind, but none seemed to weigh upon me as a sacrifice. Finally, I settled on something that I believe will be an genuine challenge and sacrifice. I will fast from sunup to sundown on Fridays... drinking only water (though I will minimize it as much as possible).

I regard fasting as the M1A1 Abrams of the spiritual connection world. All living things are hardwired to constantly seek out sustenance. With most of the animal kingdom, the search for food defines daily life. Man is fortunate to have been blessed with a rational knowledge that has allowed us to grow and gather food in abundance (my belly is a clear example). Going without a meal is, for most of us, a consequence of unhealthy absentmindedness or determined dieting. Consciously choosing to sublimate this imperative to sate our hunger elevates the Fast to a place of primary spiritual importance. Fasting during Lent increases the divine obligation and does so with authority.

In antiquity, fasting was akin to abstinence in its ecclesiastical brilliance, but appears to be an unwritten law (after all, Lent is an Apostolic institution). In later years, the Church made fasting a part of ecclesiastical law and forbade eating on Fridays during Lent. This law subsequently changed to allow the eating of meat, but forbade the consumption of fish and flesh on the same day, and so on. Now the Catholic Church encourages parishioners to not consume meat, but no longer excommunicates those that do... which is nice. The Protestants encourage parishoners to give up something meaningful, but no longer instructs members on how to fast. It is clear to anyone with doctrinal discipline that the integrity of the fast is rarely observed in these days. I for one, intend to add some small amount of integrity to Lent.

How do I intend to fast? Allow me to try and lay it out for you.

1. Conscious determination. Know why you are fasting.

I have successfully fasted in the past and found it to be enlightening. I recognize that I am fasting for one reason... to bring myself closer to God and vanquish the evil that lies within me. The guidance that I require from Christ is normally difficult for me to hear. When fasting, I find it much easier to hear Him.

2. Determine the level of your commitment. How long will you fast (ie- a month, day, or single meal)? To what extent (ie- consume liquids)? Will it affect your daily schedule (ie- workouts)? How much time will you devote to prayer and reflection?

For Lent, I have chosen Friday for a daylight hour fast. For me, this means that I will not eat until sundown on Friday night... and only after some personal time in the evening with JC. While you want to be committed, remember what Matthew said in Chapter 6, "16'When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.'

3. Prepare.

I make a list of all my sins. I can't possibly hit them all because I am a really, really able sinner. Part of the renewal process, however, is acknowledging your sins and seeking (with Christ and yourself) forgiveness. Lutherans do so by reciting the Brief Order for Confession and Forgiveness. It is particularly appropriate during Lent.

1 John 1: 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.

I then try and figure out all the people that I have wronged and seek forgiveness. If appropriate, I'll try and make it right. I try earnestly to surrender myself to Him by reading 1 John 5. I then just steel myself for temptation by reading Galatians 5: 16-26.

4. Get the body ready for the Fast.

In the days prior, I stay away from sugar and most carbs that tend to raise my blood sugar levels. You can't really avoid the crashes, but you can make them a lot easier by getting ready for them. I also try to remind myself that I'm likely to be a bit cranky and impatient, so I give some berth to the co-workers and family.

5. Make a reasonable schedule.

As this is all about God, I start the day with prayer and Bible readings (pre-picked) and then program my Outlook calendar to remind me to pray throughout the day. I also will give up TV and most computer surfing for the day so that I can remain focused.

6. Expect rewards.

John 14: 21 "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." Stay faithful and you will be rewarded.

What will you be doing for Lent?

DE PROFUNDIS CLAMO AD TE, DOMINE, DOMINE, AUDI VOCEM MEAM!
(Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord! Lord, hear my voice!)

Back in the Saddle

2007-02-17T20:26:00.000-05:00

Sheesh. Okay, gone for two weeks and I'm, like, totally smoked. I don't have a creative drip left in my body, so you'll have to bear with me as I conjure up something sufficiently crappy for you. Thanks for noticing that the lights have been off in the house. Luckily, I didn't end up like this guy. I did manage to get away from work for one evening (I was down on the Gulf Coast) and hit New Orleans and an exceptionally chilly Mardi Gras. Sweeeet. Alas, it was too cold for the chicas to earn beads. Bummer. My favorite bar was a place called "Bourbon Cowboy." Totally recommend it. Other than that, I'm just plain pooped. When on travel, I always log in tons of hours cause I figure, "hell, I'm away for the family... so why not?" Oh, additional information... I stayed at a very nice Hotel and Casino while on travel. Highly recommend it as lodging of choice.

Well, even though it is getting late on Saturday night, I've gotta keep getting some work done. No doubt I'll have my batteries fully recharged this weekend. Till next post, "so long... and thanks for all the fish!"

Meanwhile, check out this video via Michelle Malkin. Then go visit the Victory Caucus and see which Republicans crossed the line.

On Travel

2007-02-05T21:11:00.000-05:00

My apologies. I've been (and continue to be) on travel and working my a$$ off. I hope to have some more Boer posts up to fill the void.

NYT Continues to Choke

2007-01-31T12:48:00.000-05:00

Heh. Looks like the New York Times is reporting a loss of $648 Million for the Fourth Quarter. Good. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of AssClowns. Thanks for all the leaks... enjoy the continuous slide into hell.

I Love Funny Reporters

2007-01-31T11:40:00.000-05:00

Actually, I tend to love funny people, no matter their occupations. Well, Dave over at Garfield Ridge found an exceptionally funny sports reporter. Check it out!

Stuff Worth Repeating #5

2007-01-29T20:01:00.000-05:00

"Women don't want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think -- in a deeper voice." - HRH Bill Cosby

Decision 2008

2007-01-29T09:43:00.000-05:00

Man, I'm totally not ready for it. We're already seeing a massive amount of speculation about who will run. As noted at The Captain's Quarters,

Center-right and conservative bloggers have not had any experience with a wide-open primary season. In 2000, the blogosphere hardly existed, and by 2004 we knew that George Bush would have no serious competition for his renomination. The 2008 campaign is tabula rasa for Republican bloggers, more so since we have no incumbent Vice-President vying for the nomination. As I wrote over the weekend, that situation is so unusual that it has been 80 years since the last time neither party had an incumbent President or VP in the race.

True enough. The conservatives in the blogsphere are entering uncharted territory. Much like the good Captain, I think we should all just settle down.

My advice, for those who want it, would be for bloggers to refrain from identifying with any one candidate until we get much closer to the primaries. For one thing, we have not necessarily seen all of the candidates yet. More importantly, we have not really seen their campaigning style and effort. 2007 should be considered a test for this wide-open field to make the best case and to hone their craft. Thanks to an early advent of the campaign, we have almost twelve months to consider each candidate, and we should take full advantage of that.

I will not be endorsing anyone until at least December 2007. I already know who I don't like, but am more concerned with issues than candidates. I recommend that we all take a breather, turn off the damned squawk box and enjoy life in 2007... because I predict that 2008 is going to be a hellish year for politicos.

A Break in the Boer

2007-01-29T08:51:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm giving us all a little break on the Boer Wars history and forthcoming analysis. I'll have more up in a couple days and will focus instead on my favorite subject... me.

Just kidding, I would like to focus instead on how you, the reader, feels about me.

Again, kidding. I plan to focus on nothing at all. Hmmm. Should be a really productive week at work (/snark).

Sign the Pledge

2007-01-26T10:48:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't run across it (go here for some background and commentary), you should check out (and sign, IMHO) the NRSC pledge. The only way that conservatives are going to regain our political party is to hold them accountable. I signed up, did you? Check in with your comments.

The Boer Wars: Part IX

2007-01-26T10:23:00.000-05:00

The Dutch Influence in South Africa

by John Ridpath and Ed Ellis

In the meantime, however, Holland had been keenly alert to extend her influence in South Africa. Having obtained possession of the Portuguese East Indian dominions, and having a secure hold on the west coast, she now sought to establish herself at the southern extremity of the continent. She was able to perceive that the Cape of Good Hope, would be, and remain the midway station between the Occident and the Orient.

Accordingly, in 1652, the Dutch established themselves at the Cape. The advantages of the situation were at once perceived both by the colonists and the public men of Holland, who promoted the enterprise.

The patronage of the Dutch government was freely extended to the new dependency; immigration from the home kingdom was encouraged. Meanwhile the Dutch East India Company, directed by Jan Van Riebeeck, under whose immediate patronage the colony at the Cape had been planted, did little to promote, but much to restrict, the growth of the dependency. What the company desired was a trading station and not a new state. The settlement of the Dutch was made on the site of the present Cape Town, and the jurisdiction extended only a few miles into the interior.

Here it was that another point of contact was found by the Europeans with the native populations. The latter were blacks of the blackest type. The old name of the tribes occupying this part of the country was Qua-Qua, or Khoi-khoin, but for some reason this name was supplanted by that of Hottentots. The latter word seems to have been invented as an onomatopoetic imitation of the stammering cluck with which the native speech is pronounced. It was a language of hot-en-(and)-tot. The aborigines were one of the three lowest varieties of human beings; only the neighboring Bushmans and the natives of Australia could compete with them for the foot of the class.

Gradually, but slowly, the Dutch extended their authority over the Cape country. The natives were driven into the interior, or were reduced to slavery. There was already at the Cape a thin distribution of Europeans, consisting of a melange of Portuguese, Flemings, Germans, and even Poles. But these were few in numbers, and were generally a low kind, intermixed with the natives. They were unable to oppose the robust Dutch, but the latter were not sufficiently aggressive and enterprising to convert South Africa into a great commonwealth.

As the event here referred to, namely, the establishment of a permanent Dutch settlement at the Cape, was the beginning of that process of colonization which has given the Boer cast to large. districts in the region under consideration, we may look at the characteristics of this peculiar race. They were from the first a resolute but strongly conservative people. They had the agricultural instinct; they preferred the country life and production, to commerce and adventure. They desired to be let alone. They were annoyed with the restrictions which the East India Company imposed upon them.

That company had a most tyrannical method which it applied in the government of all its posts and settlements. It did not hesitate to declare what kind of industries the colonists should follow. They should plant this crop, and should not plant the other. As for taxation, that was exorbitant. Hardly could the thrift of the Dutch farmers, handicraftsmen, and small traders, answer the demands of the despotic organization which controlled them.

In order to meet the requirements of their condition, the Boers treated the natives with severity, and gradually took possession of a considerable district of the Hottentot country. Many of the blacks were reduced to slavery. The slave contingent was increased by the importation of both Malays and negroes. On the whole, while the local industry was sufficient, and while the contentment of the African Dutch was marked, the colony was not "progressive," and therefore it did not harmonize with the spirit and purpose of the English who came after them.

Such were the conditions in the original settlement from which the Boer countries of South Africa have drawn, in large measure, their present character. The interval from 1652 to 1686 may be designated as the first period of the Dutch ascendency at the Cape. In the last named year, a new element was added to the population, very accordant withal with the spirit of the Dutch colonists.

The Protestant Huguenots of France, escaping from the dreadful persecutions to which they were subjected after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, sought peace in the ends of the earth. One refuge was in America, and another was at the Cape of Good Hope. The Dutch received them willingly, and a certain enthusiasm came with the importation of Gallic blood.

The Boers Arise in South Africa

The Boers, who may from this period be regarded as native and to the manner born in South Africa, became a separate people. They grew more and more restive under the exactions of the Dutch East India Company, to which corporation the home government gave the right of control, and at length, they rebelled against this state of affairs.

They went so far as to adopt the policy of removing beyond the colonial borders in order to escape from the tyrannical rule to which they were subjected.

This policy of the Dutch, now becoming Boers, was first adopted before the close of the seventeenth century. Boer settlements began to be formed across the boundary.

A movement took place among them in all respects analogous to that of the removal of the American colonists westward through the wilderness. It was this condition which in both South Africa and America has thrust the more liberty-loving people further and further into the interior. In all ages, human freedom has sought the frontier as a refuge from the despotism and mercenary control of the older communities.

The policy, thus adopted by the Boers two centuries ago, has been pursued by them ever since. Their first escape was from the tyrannous rule of their own government. They first colonized an interior district called Graaf-Reinat, and whenever afterward the colonial government, either Dutch or British, has encroached upon the interior provinces, the Boer population has followed the policy of receding before the aggressive foreign power, choosing independence rather than empire.

During the early part of the eighteenth century, the Gamtoos River was adopted and held by the Dutch as the eastern limit of their territory. This stream had hitherto been accepted by the Hottentots and the Kaffirs as the boundary line between them.

Clash at the Gamtoos

The Gamtoos, therefore, became the demarcation between the Dutch on the west, and the Kaffir nations on the east. This vent into new territory sufficed for colonial expansion until the year 1740, when the Boers crossed over the Gamtoos into the Kaffir territory, and began to make settlements in that country.

A clash ensued, and the natives were obliged to recede, though the Boers did not try to oppress them. The country was wide and sparsely inhabited, and thus gave opportunity for colonization by the European intruders.

The movement of the Dutch inland, from Cape Colony towards the Kaffir country and through it in the direction of the Orange River, thence to the Vaal and the Buffalo, and finally to the Limpopo, began before the middle of the eighteenth century and continued until the Orange Free State and South African Republic were constituted as the seats of the Boer concentration.

Boer War for Independence 1795

By the year 1780, this progressive drift of population had extended to the Great Fish River, which was for a period the Boer frontier. Such was the situation in 1795, when the colonists at the Cape, catching the fever of revolution from Western Europe, determined to free themselves from the dominion of the home kingdom. They revolted and declared independence.

The Dutch authorities were at this time hard pressed by the continental revolution which had extended into the Netherlands. Hereupon Great Britain, seeing the inability of the Dutch to keep their grip on South Africa, and fearing that that country might be seized by the French, sent a fleet to the cape and took possession of the country in the name of the Prince of Orange.

Without much disturbance to the colonists, British authority was established over them. A British governor was appointed, and peace was maintained until 1802, when, by the treaty of Amiens, Cape Colony was restored to Holland.

Four years afterwards, the continental war broke out with more violence than ever, and the British, under Sir David Baird, again took possession in South Africa. This assumption was maintained for nine years, when it was confirmed forever, at the Congress of Vienna. A new inap of the world was there constructed. Changes were effected in all the continents and in most of the archipelagos. Cape Colony was ceded I)y the King of the Netherlands to Great Britain, together with Ceylon, Dutch Gui aina, Mauritius, Tobago, Malta, and Helgoland. The aggregate result was to make the future possessions of the Dutch in South Africa an inland dominion.

British Cape Colony was now made to extend from the mouth of the Orange River all the way around the southern bend of the continent to the mouth of the Tugela. As for the Boers, they virtually lost their statehood and became a people, without definite territorial demarcations.

Such is the story of the Dutch in South Africa down to the Berlin Conference of 1884. After that date, a number of European states appeared on the map, the history of each of which the Orange Free State and the South African Republic included, will be noted in subsequent chapters down to the time of the Jameson episode.

Somalia Development

2007-01-25T11:29:00.000-05:00

The entirely readable Washington Times has a story about U.S. citizen/terrorists that have been captured. WTF! Also, SOF continues to rock along and we continue to destroy the enemy. Isn't it nice what can be accomplished outside the MSM's ridiculous glare?

The most popular Jewish rapper since MC Hammer

2007-01-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

Craaazy Hebrew!

The Boer Wars: Part VIII

2007-01-25T08:14:00.000-05:00

Without drawing out our look at the Boer Wars indefinitely, it is still impossible to get into the meat of the War without a further look at the time preceding 1880. Rather than range back to the complete history of South Africa, we will begin our review of that time from the arrival of the Dutch. Here is that history from a Dutch period perspective.

The Dutch Enter Africa

by John Ridpath and Ed Ellis

Among modern maritime nations, Holland is second to one only, England. Her geographical position and the genius of her people have conspired to give her this enviable rank. Once and again the Dutch have been, not second, but first in the domination of the sea. This was in the seventeenth century, when the fleets of England herself, went back before the prowess of Van Tromp and De Ruyter. Time was in a still earlier age, when Dutch ships were second to none in their ocean Right to distant lands, whether to the Indies in the East, or to the frozen bay of Hudson, in North America.

Rise of the Netherlands

The rise of the Netherlands to influence at home and abroad dates from their great revolt against Spain in the year 1581. Long and dreadful was the contest which ensued. The Dutch were tried by fire and by water; for some perished in the flames of the Inquisition, while hundreds were drowned in their own North Sea, for the inrushing of which the patriot leaders had broken the dyke.

For nearly seventy years the conflict of the Dutch rebels with, their merciless adversaries continued. But they issued from their war of independence with hosannas and flying banners. Then their fearless spirit carried them forth to the ends of the earth. Long before the treaty of Westphalia (1648), when the independence of the Dutch Netherlands was finally acknowledged and guaranteed, the mariners of Holland had become conspicuous for their abilities as discoverers, explorers and colonizers. North America received their impress. The Indies, East and West, knew their forceful visitations, and Africa felt their tremendous impact.

The revolt of the Netherlands, occurred coincidently with the absorption of Portugal by Spain. With this event all Portuguese interests, whether at home or abroad, became constructively the interests of the Spanish crown. In her long war with the armies of Philip II, Holland might well attack the Portuguese possessions, since they were the dependencies of Spain. The situation as well as the spirit of the race brought the Dutch fleets to bear against the Portuguese, and made the colonial empire of the latter an easy spoil. Such was the condition which led inevitably to the overthrow of the East Indian dominion of Portugal, and the substitution therefor of the Oriental empire of the Netherlands.

Dutch Conquerors

The same thing virtually occurred on the coasts of Africa. Here the Dutch became the aggressors and the conquerors. The first trading expedition was sent out from the North Sea to Guinea in the year 1595. The ships of the Portuguese and the Spaniards could not withstand the onset of the hardy Dutch captains who assailed them. Neither could the French and English fleets bear the pressure of the new sea-power rising from the northern ocean.

In a short time, West Africa became the prey of the Dutch. In the first place, the island of Goree, belonging to France, situated off the coast of Senagambia south of the Cape Verde group, was purchased, colonized, and fortified.

In 1621, the Dutch West India Company, successor of the Dutch East India Company, was chartered, and from that time forth the fleets of Holland made their way west, south and east. They came upon the Atlantic coast of Africa, and there wrought havoc with the settlements of other nations.

In 1637, El Mina, the old stronghold of Portugal on the Gold Coast, was captured by the Dutch. Soon afterwards Axim was taken, and the other forts of the European colonists fell one by one. Wherever the Dutch landed, they first subdued and then fortified. Their charter gave them the monopoly of trade from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope.

They proceeded accordingly to make valid their claim by conquest. They built forts at intervals all the way from Arguin southward to the extremity of the continent. The gold coast was, in particular, made secure against the onset of rivals and enemies. Between Cape Blanco and St. Paul de Loanda more than two score forts and stations had been established, and of these the Dutch gained possession of sixteen.

Then followed the opening of trade, or, rather, the transfer of the trade which the Portuguese had already established to the merchant ships of Holland.*

(* The commerce of the Portuguese, according to their own report, was described as "a very great and advantageous inland trade for some hundreds of miles." Nearly all of this, now went to the Dutch, and the saying got abroad, that the Portuguese were the "dogs which chased the game out of the jungle, in order that the Dutch might take it.")

At first the commerce was mostly of gold and ivory and pepper. But it was not long until the Dutch merchants yielded to the same temptation, before which, they of Lisbon and London had sunk into utter depravity.

The slave coast promised richer reward than did the coast of gold. The man-trade was more enticing than the trade in tusks and pepper-pods. This thing, indeed, had been contemplated from the very first; for the company was chartered as the Dutch West India Company. Why West India? Why, but to hint at the slave trade as the principal business for which the company was licensed? For a long time, the merchant ships of Protestant Holland were laden to the water with their cargoes of human chattels.

Great was the enmity of England on this score. Pain would the English ships have had a share in the profitable man-trade. The British planters in the West Indies mouthed not a little because the Dutch slave-ships brought only the refuse of their traffic to them. They got only the poorer sort of slaves, while the better were sold in Hayti and Cuba. The Dutch were monopolists in this traffic, and the English traders believed in no monopoly save their own.

How, hardly, would the latter consent to pay £ 20 per head for slaves, when with an African port of free entry for their own ships, negroes could be bought or taken for fifty shillings each! Nor do the writings of the times indicate any sentiment respecting the nefarious merchandise other than the desire to make from them the greatest possible profit!

During the early part of the seventeenth century, the situation here described, continued to prevail in the Dutch-African dependencies. Frequently in this age, the European nations were so greatly complicated by war and intrigue, that their outlying possessions were neglected, if not forgotten, in the deadlier struggle of armies and navies close to the home kingdoms.

Thus, for example; in the Cromwellian era, what could be expected but that the attention of England and the proximate continental states should be absorbed in the vicissitudes of that momentous conflict? Soon afterwards, Holland and England were engaged in a death-grip on the sea.

By a strange turn of events, however, when the Revolution of 1688 came, William the Stadtholder of the Netherlands, while retaining his continental rank, became King of England. The fleets of the kingdom and the republic were brought into union for fifteen years. For a considerable period the two countries made common cause on both land and sea, contending in a masterful way against the inordinate ambitions of Louis XIV of France.

Even on the African coast, the English and Dutch rivalries were abated, not to break out again until after the death of William III.

The Boer Wars: Part VII

2007-01-24T08:58:00.000-05:00

Offense vs. Defense

by Capt. Alfred Mahan

And here at once must be made a distinction, which for intelligent comprehension it is essential to keep in mind. Putting entirely to one side all question of the merits of the quarrel -- of its right or its wrong -- it must be steadily remembered that, although the comparative aggregate strength of the two parties placed the Boers from the first on the defensive in the general sense, they were at the beginning of hostilities decisively superior in local force, and would so remain until sufficient reinforcements from Great Britain should arrive to turn the scale.

Under such circumstances, correct military principle -- and the Boers have had good advisers -- imperatively dictates that the belligerent so situated must at once assume an active offensive. By rapid and energetic movement, while the opponent's forces are still separated, every advantage must be seized to destroy hostile detachments within reach, and to establish one's own front as far in advance of the great national interests, as it can be reasonably hoped to maintain it with communications unbroken.

The line thus occupied must rest upon positions so chosen that by their strength, natural and developed, it shall be possible, when offence has to be exchanged for defensive warfare, to impose to the utmost upon the invader both delay and loss; for delay and loss mean lessening power, and only by causing such diminution, greater relatively than his own, can the weaker hope eventually to reverse the odds and win the game.

To this end, therefore, the Boers with sound military judgment at once devoted themselves; and it is very likely that the surmise before quoted was correct in naming the Hex River Pass and Durban as their ultimate objectives, to be reached by a swift advance. The latter was certainly not an unreasonable hope, and it is possible that with more precise accuracy of combination, and an offensive more resolutely sustained, they might have attained their purpose, through the mistaken primary dispositions of the British, who, though recognizing themselves to be for the time on the defensive, nevertheless, for political reasons, advanced their front of operations to a point with which, as it proved, they could not secure their communications.

From the worst consequences of this error they were saved by the gallantry and skill with which advantage was taken of the defective co-operation that marked the opening of the campaign by the Boers; and there can be also little question that the wholesome respect for their fighting. qualities, thus established at the beginning of hostilities, had a most beneficial effect for them, in discouraging attack by an enemy, who, though brave and active, constitutionally prefers a waiting game to an assault.

Thus the ultimate fate of Ladysmith was settled in the fortnight of operations that preceded the investment.

The Boer Wars: Part VI

2007-01-23T14:20:00.000-05:00

Valley of the Tugela

by Capt. Alfred Mahan

Before proceeding to the narrative of the hostilities which, so far as events of decisive interest are concerned, began in Natal, it is desirable to note one broad topographical feature distinguishing the region to which, in its eastern development, the war has been confined.

From the capital, Pietermaritzburg, the railroad ascends rapidly, so that in twentyfive miles it has risen from 2,200 to 4,800 feet, after which it begins again to go down, till fifty miles further, at Estcourt -- the most southern of the stations prominently named in the narratives of the war -- the elevation is 3,800 feet.

Thence, till near Glencoe and Dundee, there is an extensive area of comparative depression, rarely itself higher than 3,500 feet, but on the western side skirted by the precipitous spurs of the border mountains, close to which the railroad passes.

This district may be called the valley of the Tugela ; for all the streams tend to the latter, which finds its own bed in a broad belt of ground, trending to the eastward, where the surface sinks to less than 3,000 feet.

Ladysmith itself, important not only as a railroad crossing and military depot, but now also historically, on account of the operations centering around it, is at a height of 3,300. Beyond it the country, though often rough in detail, is gently rolling in general contour till near Glencoe, where the road climbs eight hundred feet in ten miles. From Glencoe a branch runs five miles east to Dundee, the site of extensive collieries, upon which Natal largely depends for fuel.

The railroad from Ladysmith to Glencoe passes therefore through a district the nature of which is favorable to rapid advance or retreat of mounted men, as the Boer forces chiefly are, and which at the same time is marked by frequent and steep detached elevations, adapted for defensive positions hastily assumed.

These conditions, with the nearness of the declivities of the western mountains, and the proximity of the enemy's frontier, behind which movements of troops would be "curtained " -- to use a graphic military metaphor -- gave the Boers particular facilities for striking unexpectedly the railroad between Ladysmith and Glencoe, upon which, in defect of other transportation, the two British posts must depend for communication between themselves, and with their base on the sea.

Further to the south, movements of the same kind would be decisively more difficult. Not only would the Boers there be further from their base, and the British nearer theirs, but the country is less favorable to rapid horse movements, the line of the rail is contracted by lofty and continuous ranges of hills, the space between which gives but a narrow front to be covered by a defence, and the river beds, as already said, are broader and deeper; notably, of course, the Tugela.

Moreover, not only are the mountains on the western frontier higher and more difficult as one goes south, they are also more remote; and, south of Colenso, form the boundary of Basutoland, upon which the Boers could not intrude without arousing armed resistance by the blacks.

All these conditions are more favorable to a pure defensive attitude, which was that imposed at the outset upon the British, because they were then numerically the weaker party.

A Gentleman's Guide

2007-01-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

Here are some interesting thoughts on being a gentleman. Make sure you click through and read Grim’s take on it. Excellent stuff.

So a gentleman is much more than well-dressed and courteous. That being said, I recently picked up a small book on how to conduct oneself as a gentleman. It is more accurately a book on courtesy and manners for men (buncha animals). As I am currently into ongoing serial posting, this will be my first post relaying some of the information found therein (are you listening Jake Commando and Shamrock?)!

I must admit that this little book has made me look much better than I truly am in real life (not that my mother didn’t teach me well, just that we never got to tuxedo etiquette on the farm). There are copious amounts of nuggets here and I don’t believe all of them to be correct. In fact, I won’t post those that I find dubious. Now, I will shamelessly reprint some of these nuggets for you here. Easy to read, I recommend this book for anyone who has a high school or college age boy. Enjoy (and some of you should probably absorb… damned, dirty apes).

A Gentleman Experiences Real Life

A gentleman never makes himself the center of attention. His goal is to make life easier, not just for himself but for his friends, his acquaintances, and the world at large.

If a gentleman has a cold, especially if he is running a fever, he declines all social invitations. If it is possible, he even stays away from the office.

Because he respects other people, a gentleman always shows up on time for any performance, whether it is a concert, a motion picture, or a stage play. If he arrives late, he does not attempt to be seated until there is a suitable break in the performance. (In the case of a play or a musical comedy, his tardiness may require him to wait until intermission.) In every case, he follows the instructions of the ushers. If he behaves himself, a gentleman knows, a kindly usher may quietly ship him into a seat on the back row.

A gentleman never forgets that watching a live performance is not the same thing as watching a TV show in his own living room. He does not talk during the performance – even during the very loudest music or sound effects. He does not shift about in his seat unnecessarily. And, if he has a tendency to cough, he always carries a cough drop. Should a gentleman find himself surprised by an uncontrollable coughing jag, he leaves the auditorium – both for his own good and for the good of others.

At a concert of any other musical performance, a gentleman does not applaud until the end of a complete musical number. If he is unsure he would be well-advised not to start an ovation alone.

In a theater, a church, or any place where people have gathered to hear music, a gentleman always turns his mobile phone and beeper off.

So, what do you think? Worthy of further posts? I recognize, by the way, that I'm stating the obvious for anyone over the age of 35. What say you?

Better Map

2007-01-22T08:20:00.000-05:00

Click to Enlarge

The Boer Wars: Part V

2007-01-22T08:15:00.000-05:00

Mountains and Rivers

by Capt. Alfred Mahan

"The mountains which on the edge of Basutoland rise to a height of ten thousand feet," writes Mr. Bryce, "break down toward Natal in tremendous precipices. Near Ladysmith the frontier of the Orange Free State coincides with a high watershed, crossed by only a few passes." (Impressions of South Africa. Third Edition, p.291.)

Where this boundary between Natal and the Free State ends, that of the Transvaal begins, and soon after turns sharply to the southward, the new direction forming with the old a very acute angle, with apex to the north.

Here, just within the territory of Natal, is Majuba Hill, whose name has been in the mouths of all men, and Laing's Nek, less familiarly known. The narrow neck of rugged country embraced between the legs of this angle is about sixty miles long, from Majuba to Glencoe. Recent events have familiarised to us many of the names along this line of rail -- Glencoe, Dundee (the terminus of a short branch), Colenso, Estcourt, and Ladysmith itself; while the winding character of the track, as mapped, compared with the, Free State road, sufficiently indicates the character of the country, in which obstacles have to be circumvented as well as overcome.

The grade is in places as high as one in thirty, though that is being reduced; but one in forty is common. Pietermaritzburg, the capital, fifty miles from Durban in a straight line, is 2,200 feet above the sea. Three hundred miles from its starting-point the road reaches an elevation of over five thousand feet, at Laing's Nek, through which it passes by a tunnel.

A topographical map of the country shows upon examination that the mountain range, which forms the western boundary of Natal toward Basutoland and the Orange Free State, and has a general north and south direction parallel to the railroad, throws off to the eastward spurs which, to repeat Mr. Bryce's expression, "break down in tremendous precipices," forming a succession of terraces.

Rivers

The gorges between these determine the direction of the river-beds whereby the rainfall pours down to the sea; and the general easterly course thus imparted is maintained and continued by the lie of the valleys, separating the successive hills through which the territory of Natal gradually rises to the northward. These various streams find their way sooner or later to the Tugela, itself one of the many, but which carries its own name until it reaches the Indian Ocean, some fifty miles north- east of Durban.

Of these watercourses, the Tugela, which the road crosses at Colenso, and the Mooi, some fifty miles south, have been most often mentioned. Another tributary called the Klip flows through the camp at Ladysmith. The channels which these streams have cut for themselves in time of torrent are both steepbanked and deep.

They are therefore among those accidents of the ground which, duly improved, can seriously affect military operations. The destruction of a bridge impedes the transport of troops and supplies; a sudden freshet, occurring in the midst of an extensive movement, may imperil an army by sundering its forces ; while of the utility of such natural trenches to the purposes of shelter and of defence, of awaiting attack, or resisting an advance, both the Tugela and Paardeberg have given recent striking illustration.

As a general rule such conditions favor the defence relatively to the offence ; the former, remaining comparatively motionless, is shielded by obstacles, to surmount which the assailant must expose himself in the open.

Thus they compensate for inferior numbers, which is usually the condition of the defence ; and they conduce to delay, ever a leading object in defensive warfare. Consequently, in the present hostilities they have helped the Boers. It may be added that their influence is most felt when the armies are face to face, or at least in touch.

Hence their existence near the scene of probable conflict, as in Natal, is a matter of more concern to the invader than when, as upon the Caee extreme of the scene of war, they are found beyond the range to which the defendant can safely extend his operations.

These successive watercourses indicate natural lines of defence, stronger or weaker according to their individual distinctive features. As the railroad, in its progress north, draws near the mountains in the neck of Natal, the streams show smaller volume and less developed channels. This comes from their having there a shorter course and descending from heights which, though still considerable, are decidedly lower.

But, while the streams become less conspicuous as obstacles, the ground toward the northward frontier is more broken and irregular, presenting numerous scattered hills, sometimes isolated, sometimes in small ranges or groups, which to a trained military skill afford positions too threatening to be disregarded, and yet which cannot be carried without heavy loss. This characteristic is observable in the neighbourhood of Glencoe, Dundee, and Ladysmith, and, as will be seen, exercised a determinative influence upon the fighting.

In the extreme north a similar condition is emphasized conspicuously at Majuba Hill and the surrounding country, which, however, and perhaps for that very reason, seem unlikely to play much of a part in the war now current.

The Boer Wars: Part IV

2007-01-20T20:38:00.000-05:00

Lines of Communication: Part II
by Capt. Alfred Mahan

The difficulty of reinforcing railway carriage by any other system of road transportation is greatly increased by the local horse-sickness, from which three-fourths of the horses exposed to it die.

Reliance for that purpose, therefore, must be upon the ox-wagon, which for this reason, and owing to the open level character of the country, has in the past played a leading part in the South African migrations.

The main and subsidiary railroads thus summarized should, from the point of view of our subject, be considered as one, contributory to the advance of the British army over a substantially even country, which opposes few natural obstacles to such a movement, though here and there "accidents of the ground -- a range of hills, or a dry river-bed, as at Paardeberg -- may facilitate opposition by a military force.

The system receives no further support until Johannesburg is reached. There the railroad from Durban comes in, and, if its carrying capacity were adequate, which is doubtful, would enable the chief base of operations and main line of communications to be shifted to the nearer locality, retaining the Cape road only as secondary.

The advantage to the British of the line of invasion from Cape Town is that it crosses the mountains, which separate the coast district, from the inland plateau, at such a distance from the enemy's frontier that it is impossible for the latter to offer serious resistance before the comparatively easy rolling country has been reached. It was for this reason that the decision of the Orange Free State to join in the war, while it added to the numerical resistance to be encountered by the British, had for them the compensating advantage that it removed the necessity of forcing their way over the difficult mountain ranges which separate Natal from the Transvaal.

With the power of Great Britain to bring into the field a great superiority of numbers, it is at least open to argument that the Free State, by ceasing to be neutral, relieved the enemy of a difficulty greater than that which its hostility introduced. It was for these reasons that the original British plan, as generally understood, was to make the main invasion along this line.

The danger of Ladysmith, it is commonly and with probability believed, caused the momentary abandonment of this purpose. Whether the change was at the moment correct in principle or not, it is evident that Lord Roberts has reverted to the first intention; a course which enforces its accuracy with all the weight of his well-earned great renown.

The other railroad system of direct importance to the military operations of the present war is the single Natal line, from Durban to Johannesburg and Pretoria, which at Ladysmith throws off a branch to the westward, crossing the mountains to Bethlehem in the Free State, and there ends, over sixty miles from the road between Bloemfontein and Pretoria.

The Natal road, having been opened as lately as 1895, may be considered the child of the Gold Fields; prior to the discovery of which, indeed, there were in the Transvaal neither products nor consumers enough to give commercial value to a railroad.

The Cape Town line reached Pretoria only in 1892, and it is still characteristic of all the lines that there is but little local traffic, either freight or passenger ; the roads exist as means whereby the function of communication, so far discharged by the sea, is prolonged from the coast to the interior of the continent.

It is not the least noteworthy in the incidents of commercial and mechanical energy, by which foreign hands have developed the Transvaal from a poor to a wealthy state, that "all the heavy machinery, the timber, the corrugated iron with which the works and men's houses are constructed, ahd nearly every requirement of work and life, had to be brought for over three hundred miles upon ox- wagons, the country itself supplying scarcely anything, and even to this day (1897) wheat being brought from Australia." (Younghusband's "South Africa of Today." Second Edition, 1899.)

Regarded as a source of supply, especially of military supply, the demands of which are more urgent than those of common life, as its needs and dangers are more imminent, the Natal railroad, though much shorter in distance to the probable scenes of operations, labours under two disadvantages.

The port of Durban is not under all circumstances safe for large vessels to enter, and there is therefore in the facilities for landing goods an inferiority to Cape Town. The country, too, is more difficult, the obstacles to movement, which also favour defence, increasing as the frontier is approached, and culminating on the borders of the Free State and the Transvaal. Being thus nearer, the latter are here better able to concentrate and sustain opposition than they are on the western flank.

Per Skul's Request... Click to Enlarge.

The Boer Wars: Part III

2007-01-19T07:36:00.000-05:00

The Lines of Communication: Part I
by Capt. Alfred Mahan

The same conditions, unfavorable to the aggregation of people into towns or villages, have interfered with the development of lines of travel, roads and cross-roads, which not only facilitate but define movement; and as the face of, the country, readily traversable in all directions, does not compel roads to take a particular direction to avoid obstacles, it has come to pass that the seat of war within the territory of the two Boer states has, like the ocean, and for the same reasons, few strategic points either natural or artificial.

The determining natural military features in South Africa are the seaports, upon possession of which depends Great Britain's landing her forces, and the mountain ranges, the passes of which, as in all such regions, are of the utmost strategic value. It has been said that the Boers' original plan of campaign was to force the British out of Natal, thus closing access by Durban from the sea, and at the same time to seize the pass back of Cape Town known as Hex River. If successful, the eastern flank of the Boer frontier would have been secured against British landing by the occupation of Durban, while advance from Cape Town, against the other extremity, would have involved a front attack upon a strong position in a difficult mountain defile.

These movements, accurate in conception, were probably in any case too developed for the Boer numbers, and were definitively foiled by the British grip upon Ladysmith and Kimberley. Advance was too hazardous, leaving in the rear such forces, unchecked, upon the flank of the lines of communication.

To these two extremes, or flanks, of the Boer frontier, correspond on the British side the ports of Cape Town and Durban, which may be said to mark the western and eastern limits of the field of military operations in the war. They are the chief sea-ports on the South African coast, which by nature is singularly deficient in good and safe anchorages. The advantages of these two, artificially improved, and combined with the relatively open and productive region immediately behind them, have made them the starting-points of the principal railroad lines by which, through the sea, the interior is linked to the outer world.

The general direction of these roads is determined, as always, by the principal objects of traffic or other interests. Thus the line from Cape Town, ascending by a winding course through the mountains in the rear, pushes its way north to Kimberley, where are the great diamond fields, and thence on, by way of Mafeking, to the territory of the British South African Company -- now known as Rhodesia.

This lies north of the Transvaal, and, like it, is separated from the sea by the Portuguese dominion, having, however, by treaty a right of military way through the latter by the port of Beira; of which right use is now being made.

In the northern part of its course, which at present ends at Buluwayo, this road is as yet rather political than economical in its importance, joining the British entrance at the sea to the as yet little developed regions of the distant interior.

At a point called De Aar junction, five hundred miles from Cape Town, a principal branch is thrown off to the eastward to Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, whence it continues on to Johannesburg, the great industrial Centre of the Gold Fields, and to Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal. A glance along this stretch of road will show that between De Aar and Bloemfontein it receives three tributary routes from three different points of the seacoast -- Port Elizabeth, Port Alfred, and East London -- the whole system concentrating some sixty miles before Bloemfontein, at Springfontein, which thus becomes a central depot fed by four convergent, but, in their origin, independent streams of supply; an administrative condition always conducive to security and to convenience.

This instance also illustrates the capital importance especially in a military point of view of a place where meet several roads from the permanent base of operations, which in the case of the British interior campaign is the sea. The fall of Springfontein would close every avenue of supply by rail; but a blow at any one of the four lines which concentrate there does not necessarily affect the others. Holding a cross-roads in fact exemplifies the homely phrase of killing two birds with one stone.

Beyond Springfontein the straightness of the line sufficiently testifies to the easy practicability of the country it traverses. Upon this railroad system depend the supplies of the British army, which presents in both men and animals a concentrated mass of life heretofore unknown to the territory in which it is moving, and where, from previous conditions of population and development, necessary resources of every kind are deficient. This system constitutes the main chain of communications, as the term is understood in war; by it chiefly, for much of the distance wholly, must come all the ammunition, most of the food, and not improbably at times a good deal of the water drunk during the dry season, which fortunately, from this point of view, is also that of cooler weather.

Gay's Anatomy

2007-01-18T13:11:00.000-05:00

My wife and I watch this truly crappy show called "Grey's Anatomy." Recently it was revealed that the guy who plays that monumental pussy named George... is gay. I'm sorry, you mean someone actually thought he was straight? Puulease.

One of the things that my wife likes about me and my buddies (think doorkickin' military) is that we are "men." There is virtually no ambiguity and homo-erotic banter is greeted with guffaws and snappy comebacks. For example, I've spooned with buddies on freezing nights in the field. One buddy actually saved me from dying from hypothermia that way. Hey thanks, Bill... by the way, don't think I didn't notice the wood... homo. See?

The Boer Wars: Part II

2007-01-18T09:32:00.000-05:00

Terrain of the Country

by Capt. Alfred Mahan

The mention of this migration leads naturally and immediately to a summary of the physical conditions of the country, by which, as well as by derivation of blood, the apartness of the two races has been emphasized. Between the narrow margin of land belonging, as it were, to the sea, and the high interior plateau, there runs from the extreme west of the British dominions a chain of lofty mountains, parallel, roughly, to the coastline, and terminating only when abreast of Delagoa Bay. These reach an elevation of from six to eight thousand feet, and in places on the border between Natal and Basutoland heights of eleven thousand are attained.

On the side toward the sea the ascent is comparatively rapid and difficult, though often broken into precipitous terraces. Inland the descent is less, and more regular, issuing in a plateau from three to five thousand feet above the sea, and presenting almost throughout a comparatively level or undulating surface that offers no serious difficulty to transit.

The territory of the Orange Free State and of the Transvaal lies wholly within this tableland. In this region, and throughout Africa south of 25 degrees there are river beds, but no navigable rivers. The country is generally treeless, and there is a great deficiency of steady natural water supply. During the rainy season, from October to March, the naked ground fails to retard the running off of the waters, which therefore escape rapidly by the rivers, swelling them to momentary torrents that quickly and fruitlessly subside. During the long dry season the exposed herbage dries to the roots.

From these conditions it results that not only is agriculture generally impracticable, economically, but that cattle and sheep, the chief wealth of the Boer farmers, require an unusual proportion of ground per head for pasture; and the mobility of bodies of horsemen, expecting to subsist their beasts upon local pasturage, is greatly affected by the seasons-an important military consideration.

The large holdings introduce large spaces between the holders, who dwell therefore alone, each man with his family. So it has come to pass that the descendants of one of the most mercantile and gregarious of races, whose artists have won some of their chiefst triumphs in depicting the joyous episodes of crowded social life, have, through calling and environment, become lovers or solitude, austere, self-dependent, disposed rather to repel than to seek their kind.

The Boer Wars: War in South Africa 1880-1902

2007-01-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

This is the first post in a series of posts regarding the history of The Boer Wars. That's right, a history and analysis of the Boer Wars in bite-sized chunks. Much of the early posts will be dispatches from that time and place. Why these particular wars? Read along over the next couple of weeks and see why...

History of the Area
by Capt. Alfred Mahan

The war in South Africa has been no exception to the general rule that the origin of current events is to be sought in the history of the past and their present course to be understood by an appreciation of existing conditions, which decisively control it. This is especially true of the matter here before us, because the southern extreme of Africa, like to that of the American continent, has heretofore lain far outside of the common interest, and therefore of the accurate knowledge, of mankind at large.

The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, in themselves remote, tempestuous, and comparatively unproductive regions, for centuries derived importance merely from the fact that by those ways alone the European world found access to the shores of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The application of steam to ocean navigation, and the opening of the Suez Canal, have greatly modified conditions, by diverting travel from the two Capes to the Canal and to the Straits of Magellan.

It is only within a very few years that South Africa, thus diminished in consequence as a station upon a leading commercial highway, has received compensation by the discovery of great mineral wealth.

Thus separated from the rest of the world, by lack of intrinsic value as a region producing materials necessary to the common good, the isolation of South Africa was further increased by physical conditions, which not only retarded colonisation and development, but powerfully affected the character and the mutual relations of the European settlers.

Portuguese mariners, after more than half a century of painful groping downward along the West African coast in search of a sea route to India that vague tradition asserted could there be found, in 1486 rounded the Cape of Good Hope, which then received the despondent name of Cape of Storms from its first discoverer, Bartholomew Diaz.

Vasco da Gama, following him in 1497, gave to it its present auspicious title, which was to him of sound augury; for he then passed on to explore the East coast and to find the long-desired Indies. It was, however, the latter which constituted the Portuguese goal.

Africa was to them primarily the half-way house, where to refresh their ships on the long voyage to Hindustan, which then took near a year to complete. For this purpose they established themselves on the island of Mozambique, and gradually took possession of the country to this day known as Portuguese East Africa.

From that far back settlement, Delagoa Bay, near the southern border, is now a thorn in the side of the British invasion a port with which they are not at war, and therefore cannot seize or blockade, but which, through the supplies that thence reach the otherwise isolated Transvaal, contributes powerfully to support the defence.

Upon the heels of the Portuguese followed the Dutch, aiming like them at the Far East, more especially at what were then comprehensively called the Spice Islands -- the Moluccas. They also felt the need of a half-way station. For this the Cape of Good Hope, with the adjacent bays -- Table Bay and False Bay -- presented advantages; for though not perfectly safe anchorages at all seasons, the voyage to the islands is more expeditiously and healthfully made by starting from, and keeping in a far southern latitude, than by proceeding along the East African coast.

In 1652 the Dutch settled at the Cape, and gradually extended their holding to the eastward as far as the Great Fish River. A generation later, in 1686, the population received an accession of French Protestant refugees, leaving their country upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

From these descended the late General Joubert, Commander-in-Chief of the Transvaal forces at the opening of hostilities. The administration of the colony by the Dutch East India Company being both arbitrary and meddlesome, some of the more independent spirits withdrew from the coast and moved inland, behind the difficult mountain ranges that separate the narrow strip of sea-coast from the high table-lands of the interior.

In 1795 local dissatisfaction and the spread of French revolutionary principles led to a revolt of the colonists, and Holland passing at that time into alliance with France, the Cape was seized by a British naval and military expedition.

At the Peace of Amiens in 1802 it was restored to Holland; but in the next war it was again taken by the British, in 1806, and at the Peace of 1814 was confirmed in their possession.

The population remained Dutch in blood and in tradition ; but subsequent accessions of English immigrants have established in Cape Colony itself an approach to equilibrium between the two races, to which has also contributed a series of emigrations to theinterior by the Dutch farmers, dissatisfied with various incidents of British rule. Into the merits of these differences we have neither space nor occasion to go.

In 1836, immediately prior to the largest of these movements, known as the Great Trek, the British Government, by Act, extended its claim of control over all South Africa, south Of 25', the latitude of Delagoa Bay; and the Boer emigrants were warned that in entering that region they remained under British authority, unless they passed on into the Portuguese dominion.

From this Trek resulted directly, in the course of years, the two Boer states, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (commonly called the Transvaal); and also, indirectly, the easternmost British colony in South Africa, Natal, in which the English element is decisively preponderant.

Craaaazy Links Wednesday!

2007-01-17T09:42:00.000-05:00

Hey, at least I'm managing to post...

Please, please, gentlemen. Do not click here.

Dumbass.

My not-so-secret crush continues… Poor, poor girl.

Great, and it’s AFTER Christmas.

If I were there, I’d already be some Swell, Beefy Fella’s (SBF) bitch. This post is a good example.

Movie Review: We Are Marshall

2007-01-15T08:39:00.000-05:00

What can I say? Clearly I'm a sucker for football movies (though going to see Any Given Sunday was time I'll never get back). I suppose that with a few exceptions (like Friday Night Lights) it would be most accurate to say that I'm a sucker for football movies based on a real story.

Marshall was worth the money I spent on ticket, popcorn, and drink (about $800). As my readers know, I'm a huge fan of optimism, and this move is awash in hard work and positive thinking. I suppose that after all these years I'm more inclined to watch movies that will lift me up rather than simply dull my brain. This is one of those. I'll purchase this movie and put it up on my shelf near (not next to) Rudy, Brian's Song, and Invincible (among others) that I'll encourage my son to watch.

What is it with the Videos?

2007-01-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

This is pretty damn funny.

via Ace.

Karaoke for the Deaf

2007-01-11T12:04:00.001-05:00

More Analysis!

2007-01-09T07:02:00.000-05:00

Looking back over the last couple of months, I noticed a trend. I haven't given you, my gentle readers, any analysis or commentary worth returning on a daily basis. I've been so preoccupied with business that I really haven't taken the time to pass on my massive amounts of bleary-eyed wisdom to ya'll. So, without further ado...

THE BCS SUCKS! Okay, I'm not a fan of Ohio State (even though they are Big Ten) but these teams played their last games SIX WEEKS ago! WTF! The real national championship game IMHO was Michigan v Ohio. Teams are in the groove... tired... traveled... and as raw as you're likely to see them. Waiting five or six weeks means that you are seeing an entirely different team playing. Ohio completely destroyed every single other team this year. The Gators, however, (again, IMO) weren't playing to potential all year. I don't know, I just miss having all the college games over on New Year's Day (latest) and championships decided a bit more realistically. I'm tired of being uninspired that teams are playing in the Chik-Fil-A Bowl. That being said... the Gators were clearly the best team last night. An incredibly disappointing end to the BCS process.

My hat is off, however, to Boise State for giving this Squirrel possibly the all-time best Bowl Game EVER. Thank God for you!

More analysis/rant coming later today!

Winna, Winna, Chicken Dinna!

2007-01-08T09:49:00.000-05:00

Yep, I won week one of the Squirrely Biggest Loser! Woo Hoo. Unfortunately, guys always rock at the beginning. I lost seven pounds last week and really only have another 15 to go before I hit my goal weight. In short, there is no freakin' way that I'll repeat that amount next week. I kinda screwed myself. Anyway, I do feel better and am already experiencing increased energy levels. Nice.

Quality Remix

2007-01-06T15:41:00.000-05:00

An awesome example of creative editing.

I would actually pay to see this one!