Beef always wins.

Traditional dress?

2006-11-19T04:56:00.000-08:00

I just read in Mark Steyn's book that the Jilbab dates only to the 1970s, and was instituted by the Muslim Brotherhood...who knew? It took 30 years to go global mainstream ...that doesn't portend good things for 2036.

Damn Right

2006-09-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

Having just started a new job, I haven't taken time for a 9/11 post, so I'll quickly point out a bit from Dean Barnett's:

To fully understand the threat that groups like Al Qaeda represents, you have to toss a couple of complexities into the mix. The first regards the abilities of Al Qaeda’s members. Al Qaeda’s troops, including their leaders like Zawahiri and bin Laden, almost uniformly lack military training. The best Al Qaeda “soldier” would last about three seconds with the typical American Army Ranger.

Rogers

2006-08-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

I'm having trouble motivating myself to write about Ranger School...maybe it's like the critics of United 93 and World Trade Center say... "it's too soon!"
btw, I saw WTC a couple nights ago and it's an excellent film...pretty intense and not exactly what I was expecting (not really a big picture film - it focused on the personal side of 9/11) but I'd definitely recommend it.
Anyway, maybe I'll just give an overview of some of my thoughts on each phase and see where that takes me...
Camp Rogers (at Ft Benning, GA) is where the whole thing starts...at 0300 on a Monday morning. An army PT test is first, and the cadre do everything they can to make it the most intimidating PT test possible. They grade very strictly, and we lost probably 30-40 out of our 350-man class. I ran into an old friend just after I passed the push-up event, which made the experience much more enjoyable for me...when the Ranger Instructor counted push-up number 49 and told me to move out the relief was immense - I felt like the next 2 months would be a breeze after those dreaded push-ups (I was wrong, but I wouldn't know that for sure for another few hours).
I don't recall the rest of that day being too bad (I remind you that bad is a relative term) until one RI decided to give our platoon a class on squad ambush...starting at about 0130. I was falling asleep standing up, and I believe that I would have actually fallen over had I not taken drastic action. I had illegally saved a bit of pound cake from my MRE in my pocket, and those few carefully concealed bites woke me up sufficiently to make it through that class. I don't remember what time we were released that night, but I think we got an hour of sleep or so.
I was doing pretty well - mainly due to the 2-week "pre-ranger" course I had just finished, which gave me a good idea of what to expect during the first week. Like everyone else I was exhausted, but at least I wasn't surprised by it...being mentally prepared made a huge difference.
All this about Ranger school is making me hungry, so I think I'll take a break...in the meantime I'd recommend VDH's latest as some good reading.

Home from charm school

2006-08-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Never underestimate the capabilities of the human body.

Given the proper motivation, I know for certain that an individual can operate continuously for at least 91 hours without sleep, move through waist-deep swamp with full combat load for at least 7.5 hours without a break, and consume 6 hotdogs (with buns), four bags of chips, three candy bars, and two sodas in less than 20 minutes (and be ready to do it again an hour later!).

These experiences and many more can be yours if you choose to spend 61 days of your summer at the U.S. Army's Ranger School. For those of you unfamiliar with the course, here's a fairly good summary, and here's the official site and brief.

I can't say that I recommend the course for everyone, nor can I say that I really enjoyed very much of it, however, it certainly gave me a real appreciation and respect for the guys who do this stuff everyday.

The course was certainly one of the most difficult things I have ever done, which is precisely what makes it worthwhile. Just about everyone I speak with about Ranger School asks me what I was thinking when I volunteered to go, and the answer I normally give is that I wanted to do something hard.

Most young children don't hesitate before attempting tasks that would be impossible for them to complete. However, most adults I have observed are very wary of trying anything they aren't certain they can handle, and some simply refuse to do anything they haven't actually successfully completed before. While those folks may be comfortable in their timidity, I find it far more interesting and rewarding to attempt tasks where the outcome is uncertain and success is far from guaranteed.

For me, the Ranger course certainly fell into the category of uncertain outcome and a rather small chance of success. I claim no expertise in infantry tactics or small unit leadership skills, and as an Army Aviator I have led a life of luxury relative to the rest of the force. When I found out about the opportunity of attending Ranger School I realized that I had not attempted something so difficult in several years, and I wanted to ward off the creeping complacency that a life of comfort invites.

One of the first truths you learn at Ranger School is that you do not earn your Ranger tab; your buddies earn it for you. In my case the foremost among my many buddies was my beautiful wife who first encouraged me to apply for the course, knowing that it would entail over 3 months of separation and that she would have to move to Korea (with our 2 dogs) by herself. Her prayers, letters, and constant support made it possible for me to keep going.

My mother and grandmother made significant additions to the thousands of hours they have spent in prayer for me since 1977, and without my dad's example I would have never thought to try something that others warned me against so earnestly.

The motivation to keep going came from home, but the buddies I met at the course are the ones who pulled me out of that waist-deep swamp, took a few hundred rounds of ammunition from my rucksack when I just couldn't carry anymore, kicked me in the ribs when I couldn't stay awake, and slipped me a couple of precious M&Ms when they knew I was hurting for calories.

Ranger School is an exercise in teamwork, so you should look with suspicion upon anyone who brags too much about his exploits there, unless of course he is recalling the stories over adult beverages with the guys who were there with him - in that case every syllable he speaks is truth, and it was probably even worse than he remembers!

I hope to write a bit more about the specifics of the course over the coming weeks and hopefully get back into some semi-regular posting as well. Thanks to any of you who are still checking in here - I appreciate your perseverance!

Spotty at best

2006-04-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

I'm making my attempt to get back into blogging at a rather inconvenient time, since over the next five months I am taking three weeks of leave, helping Jenny move to Korea, going to Ranger School, and finally moving myself to Korea. These activities (and the lack of internet access that accompanies them) will cause my already-sporadic blogging to get much more infrequent before I get any better.

Excuses aside, let me address a couple points in the comments below...jg holds that "Disinformation is the main focus of the MSM, certainly on Iraq, but chiefly on America in general."

While I agree that disinformation is quite prevalent, I'm not sure that I think it's the MSM's "main focus." I don't doubt that some of the most influential MSMers have an agenda, but I think that mostly the writers and talking heads are swept away in a rip tide of group-think.

In any environment where personal advancement is an individual's goal, the tendency to follow the path of least intellectual resistance is great. Most people in America are far more dedicated to personal advancement than to any ideology, and two arenas where this trend is especially pronounced are academia and the media, both of which lean decidedly to the left.

As far as anti-Americanism goes, I believe that, at least on the individual level, it stems from a lack of real, first hand knowledge of things American. Like other forms of racism, individual interaction and experience will dilute or completely erase it for anyone who cares enough to seek out the truth.

I do agree with Bookworm that constant hammering of a negative message (as with the war in Iraq) does have an effect, but I believe that Americans are far more resistant to that message than they were before we were attacked on our own soil.

Misunderestimated

2006-03-29T05:11:00.000-08:00

Again, in response to comments below I point out the conclusion to an excellent piece by Amir Taheri in the WSJ:

Those who have based their strategy on waiting Mr. Bush out may find to their cost that they have, once again, misread not only American politics but the realities of a world far more complex than it was even a decade ago. Mr. Bush may be a uniquely decisive, some might say reckless, leader. But a visitor to the U.S. soon finds out that he represents the American mood much more than the polls suggest.

The MSM has also misread the current situation here in the US - the momentum has shifted against them, and though they still hold enormous sway, their tide is ebbing. They are losing credibility by the day, and Americans have no reason to trust them again since we have so many more trustworthy, accurate, and intellectually honest sources to rely upon.

I make a point to withhold my support from all MSM outlets by refusing to watch or read them when at all possible, and I share my position with anyone with whom the topic comes up. Among my peers I have been very surprised by the number of people who share my views, which gives me much hope that the cause is anything but lost.

A few quick points

2006-03-27T19:55:00.000-08:00

An interesting comment on my last post makes me feel the need to clarify a couple things:

1) I'm pretty sure that the MSM is going to attack and misrepresent President Bush for the foreseeable future. However, when he speaks directly to the public either in speeches or in Q&A or interviews with the media he stands a better chance of getting his message across untainted than if he communicates only through press releases and spokesmen. I think he would do well to grant some interviews to bloggers and radio hosts (Hugh Hewitt maybe?) - they are some of his most intelligent supporters, and an exclusive with the president would go a long way toward legitimizing the medium.

2) The media cannot tear the country apart. People can tear the country apart, but the people of our country are far too lazy to do any such thing. The people of our country do not realize that we are a Nation at war. If they come to realize that we are at war they won't tear the country apart, they'll just tear their newspapers and TV sets apart and seek real news (and truth) elsewhere. We may not be far from such a day, but I fear that Americans would like nothing more than to be lulled back into daydreams of a 9/10 world and ignore the reality of Islamofacism.

3) I do not think the President should attack his opponents, but he certainly should hold them to the standard of truth. He should not accept false premises - he should set the record straight just as he did with Helen Thomas last week. Of course, as Commander in Chief, he must represent his political friends and foes alike, just as those of us in the military protect the rights of the protesters who abhor us. This doesn't mean that he has to let them get away with constant rejection of reality - our country is based upon objective truth and the rule of law, and he should be unapologetic about reminding his opponents of that fact.

Keep it coming

2006-03-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to some clips from the President's press conference - I was definitely encouraged. He needs to go VFR direct (to use a little pilot lingo) to the American people as often as he can. Here's the transcript, but listen to or watch it if you can.

Needed: term limits

2006-03-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

The San Diego Union Tribune points to the real spending problem - not pork, but entitlements.

But for at least 25 years, our leaders – Republican and Democrat alike – have seen the baby boomer entitlement crush coming and done nothing about it.

No real change will occur to fix Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid without term limits for members of Congress.

A mystery

2006-03-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

An AP article strikes me as odd:

Amazon.com Inc. said Monday it had modified the way its search engine handles queries for the term ''abortion'' after receiving an e-mail complaint that the results appeared biased.

Until the recent change, a user who visited the Seattle Internet retailer and typed in the word ''abortion'' received a prompt asking, ''Did you mean adoption?'' followed by search results for ''abortion.''

First, why would someone be upset if, after searching for the latest hardback bestsellers on abortion, an automatic question popped up asking if he had accidentally meant to search for adoption?

Also, do most multi-million dollar companies make such a change based upon "an email complaint"? (I can only assume "an" means one email)

Finally, why exactly would the AP find this story important enough to warrant an article?

Iraqi / Coalition Air Assault

2006-03-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

This story is huge:

U.S. forces and Iraqi troops launched what the military described as the largest air assault since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion Thursday, targeting insurgent strongholds north of the capital.

"More than 1,500 Iraqi and coalition troops [650 U.S. troops and more than 800 Iraqi soldiers], over 200 tactical vehicles, and more than 50 aircraft participated in the operation," the military statement said.

Near the end of the first day of the operation, the military said a number of weapons caches have been captured, containing artillery shells, explosives, bomb-making materials and military uniforms.

An air assault operation like this requires an immense amount of coordination and training, and the fact that Iraqi troops constitute the majority of the assault force is very impressive considering their limited training time. The Iraqi army is quickly becoming a seasoned fighting force.

More of the same

2006-03-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

The endless frustration of honest and well-meaning members of Congress (assuming, of course, that such a species exists) must be the overwhelming public ignorance of what actually happens or fails to happen in our Nation's capitol.
Political stunts seem to now be the norm, and the combination of a biased (and often blatantly dishonest) media and a largely intellectually lazy population ensures that Congressmen of a certain political stripe have no reason to fear exposure.
Senator Feingold's resolution for censure (CBS paints him as a hero) is today's example, as Feingold refuses to even debate the issue and the Democrats refuse a vote.

Means to an end

2006-03-13T19:32:00.000-08:00

David Warren draws a relevant comparison:
Mr Bush's commitment to spreading democracy was like Lincoln's commitment to extinguishing slavery -- not the key point, but necessary to the key point of recovering order. If Lincoln could have preserved the union, and it meant keeping slavery, he would have done that.
Ditto, if Mr Bush thought he could restore the status quo ante of a Middle East that was no threat to the West, without pushing democracy down anyone's throat, he would do that.

My time in Iraq proved to me the validity of Mark Steyn's words:
When history comes a-calling, you never have a choice between good or bad options. They're only between bad and much, much worse options.

Democracy and Islam my not be compatible, but until someone shows me a better, more realistic option I'll cast my lot with the Bush Doctrine.

Explaining what should be obvious

2006-03-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Victor Davis Hanson:

For all the tragedy of our fallen in Iraq, if a constitutional government stabilizes in Baghdad, and liberalization follows in the surrounding region, then our losses will not be measured against the far lighter casualties suffered in Panama, Gulf War I, or Grenada, but against the far worse losses of Korea and World War II.

VDH brings an historian's perspective to our short-attention-span media cycle, and I try not to miss any of his columns.

Get serious.

2006-03-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

Investors' Business Daily calls the line item veto "Budget Tweezers"

According to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, spending on the Big Three entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) will go from 41% of the federal budget in 2000 to 65% in 2040, with overall federal spending rising from 18.4% to 23.8% of GDP.

President Bush and the GOP congress certainly cannot be labeled conservative if judged by their ridiculous spending record. With few exceptions, our representatives are career politicians, and that mindset almost eliminates any chances of cutting spending. Term limits is the only serious, long term spending solution.

Swift Justice

2006-03-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

Looks like our justice system could use a lesson from Iraq's not-yet-two-year-old government:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Iraqi government said 13 insurgents were hanged Thursday in the first executions of militants since capital punishment was reinstated in Iraq after the end of the U.S. occupation.
“The 13 terrorists were tried in different courts and their trials began in 2005 and ended earlier this year,” an official of the Supreme Judiciary Council said

Don't blame the media (but don't believe them either)

2006-03-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

Tony Blankley:
A nation cannot design (and maintain public support for) a rational response to the danger if the nature and extent of the danger is not identified, widely reported and comprehended.

The identification and comprehension of the danger is a personal responsibility for Americans, not the job of the media. To continue as a great nation, the people of our country must demonstrate commitment to truth that outweighs desire for comfort.

New comments

2005-04-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

After several requests I've finally installed Haloscan comments. I haven't taken the old ones off yet, mainly because I don't like messing with my template and I don't feel like trying to figure out how to get rid of them right now!

Anyway, I hope these will be easier to use and faster...

Please do something...

2005-04-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

I'm growing concerned that the Republicans in congress haven't learned anything from George Bush's political success. He's a leader, and he isn't afraid to take unpopular positions to get things done.

Glenn Renyolds posted this quotation: "I grow more and more convinced the Republican majority will end itself by 2006 if the Left will just shut up for five minutes."

I must say that I agree, and the guys at Powerline are on the case today:

The next election is a year and a half away. If the Republicans in the Senate aren't willing to buck the polls now, when will they be? And how can anyone think that a delay in pursuing the Constitutional option will cause the poll numbers to turn around? It won't. It will merely be perceived as blood in the water that causes the Democratic/media attacks to intensify.

Success breeds success, and weakness breeds more weakness. The Republicans have been voted into the majority. The greatest danger to them is not doing something that is temporarily unpopular; the greatest danger is being perceived as too weak to enact their agenda. That danger, I am afraid, is upon us.

I won't get into it right now, but I have a feeling that term limits would do lots of good in getting the republicans out of their scared, carreer politician mindsets.

A lost cause

2005-04-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Worldmagblog points out William Raspberry's piece in yesterday's San Diego Union Tribune, Is Fox News promoting media bias?

I don't watch Fox News (or any TV news at all) so I'm anything but authoritative on this matter, but Raspberry is partially correct.

Raspberry claims that Fox's biased programming has two dangerous effects:

The first is that the popularity of the approach – Fox is clobbering its direct competition (CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, etc.) – leads other cable broadcasters to mimic it, which in turn debases the quality of the news available to that segment of the TV audience.

The second, far more dangerous, effect is that it threatens to destroy public confidence in all news.

That last, I admit, is more fear than prediction, but let me tell you what produces that fear. Fox News Channel – though the people who run the operation are at great pains to insist otherwise – is deliberately partisan. It is as though right-wing talk radio has metastasized into cable and assumed a new virulence.

As for his first point, he may be right that the opposing views will drive each other toward the right and left fringes, but Fox certainly has legitimate claim to the grade school argument "he started it!" There would have been no market for Fox had the other networks not already disenfranchised so many viewers.

I think his second point is further along than he believes. I have had no confidence in TV news for years. It's just entertainment, as the ridiculous coverage of election day 2004 goes to show (remember how none of the networks would call the election for Bush, and each picked their states carefully to keep us all hanging on through the next commercial break?)

People who are seeking the truth and not just clever soundbites will choose their sources carefully, and will also become adept at separating fact from bias.

Raspberry's idea that bias and the loss of credibility of TV news is FNC's fault is ludicrous - Fox isn't helping the situation, but the other networks lost credibility long before Fox came along.

If you're serious about finding truth and aren't interested in sorting through the BS to get to it, I must recommend that you turn off the TV.

Learning something new

2005-04-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Being a protestant, I have never learned much about, nor paid special attention to the pope. However, I have tried to read up on the subject in the past couple of weeks.

According to Captain Ed, Benedict XVI seems to be a good choice, and from reading only some of his first remarks I am impressed with his humility:

"Dear brothers and sisters, after our great pope, John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in God's vineyard," according to a translation of remarks he made in Italian. "I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and how to act, even with insufficient tools, and I especially trust in your prayers.

"In the joy of the resurrected Lord, trustful of his permanent help, we go ahead, sure that God will help. And Mary, his most beloved mother, stands on our side."

I'll continue my research, and if anyone has any applicable links I'd appreciate the help.

Update: Hugh Hewitt has some excellent links.

Learning to blog again

2005-04-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

Blogging definitely isn't like riding a bike.

I've been out of the news cycle for awhile now, and it's tough to jump back in...especially since I don't have as much time as I did in Iraq. It sounds strange, but back here at home I have so much other stuff going on that I don't have nearly the time I did in Baghdad; I just need to learn how to fit blogging back into my schedule.

Anyway, I have put up a couple of posts at Cord of Three, and I'm reading other blogs to get back into the swing of things. If you didn't catch this post over at Powerline, it's quick and worth your time - some encouraging stats on the real situation on the ground in Iraq.

Policies to watch

2005-04-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

Drudge links to an AP story on a South Korean crackdown on online pornography.

Since January, the main prosecutor's office in Seoul has issued arrest warrants for about 100 people charged with spreading obscene material under South Korea's telecommunications law, a crime carrying penalties of up to a year in jail or a nearly $10,000 fine.

Later in the article, an interesting statistic and a disturbing trend:

In a country where more than 70 percent of homes have high-speed Internet connections, access to cyberporn is easy.

That means traditional taboos in Korea's conservative, Confucian-based society have quickly shattered, said Lee Mee-sook, a sociology professor at Paichai University in the central city of Daejeon.

"The code of ethics became weak, and people started satisfying their sexual desires through the Internet - anonymously," she said.

Also, South Korea already has a national ID card, and they’re not just using it to control immigration:

Many Korean Web sites require users to enter their national identification card numbers to confirm their age to access adult content. But tech-savvy children can use programs to create false numbers or simply use their parents' IDs instead.

And lastly, the interesting concept of limited free speech:

South Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of speech, but contains the caveat that such expression should neither "violate the honor or rights of other persons nor undermine public morals or social ethics."

I’ll pay a little more attention to articles from South Korea from now on - the results of their efforts will be fascinating I’m sure.

False Alarm

2005-04-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

At first I thought this story might be a harbinger of some semblance of personal responsibility returning to our lawsuit crazed society, but I was mistaken. It appears that the woman was probably just lying.

She originally claimed to have found a human finger in her Wendy’s chili. She hasn’t backed away from her claim, but she has now decided not to sue the restaurant.

These paragraphs are telling:

Court records show Ayala has a history of making claims against corporations, including a former employer, General Motors and a fast-food restaurant. She acknowledged getting a settlement several years ago after her daughter was sickened at a Las Vegas restaurant.

''Lies, lies, lies, that's all I am hearing,'' she said last week after her home was searched last week by police. ''They should look at Wendy's. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again?''

I don’t know all the facts on this case, and perhaps I’m jumping to conclusions, but had this woman actually found a finger in her chili, it wouldn’t take an all-star lawyer to get her a hefty settlement with Wendy’s. Instead, she’s backing down because the process thus far has ''been very difficult for her emotionally.''

Give me a break.

Had she actually found a finger in her meal, gotten deathly sick and spent a week in the hospital I’d say go ahead and sue Wendy’s. However, what basis has she to sue just for finding a finger and suffering nothing but some sort of vague emotional harm?

Dogface please

2005-04-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

I’ve never liked the labels ‘dog person’ or ‘cat person.’

I like both cats and dogs, and they both serve perfectly legitimate purposes, but if I have to choose a label I’m definitely a dog guy.

Callimachus points out a funny (if slightly profane) post on cats and dogs of which I’ll excerpt just a bit:

Dogface can not only warn you of intruders in an unmistakable aural way, but he can also scare them away, and if that fails, he can actually wound them. Good boy, Dogface. Dogface can live outside comfortably - and that's where all his dander and fur and dirt will blow away, rather than on your furniture. Added bonus: that's also where he will defecate. Instead of, you know, in a box inside your house. Because that would be gross.

Dogface can be trained to help blind people, handicapped people, epileptics, firemen, policemen, the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, the border patrol, military troops, and terminally ill hospice residents. To mention a few. Dogface can be trained to call medics on a freaking telephone. Which he can be trained to do in response to realizing his owner is getting ready to have a seizure. Which he can detect in some way that humans can't even determine.

Catface, on the other hand, can detect his fellow cats' fresh vomit, which he'll have as a snack. And that's about it. Cats have the personality of toenail clippings. I've had about 10 cats in my lifetime, and I dearly loved each one of them. I was a full-fledged "cat person", and I spent many hours talking to and about my cats. But now that I've spent a few years with dogs, good grief. It's like comparing dolphins to jellyfish.

Too funny.