Burn in Hell

What can I say? I'm glad that sonofabitch is dead. I understand that he was scared. Nice, but really I'm just glad that he's taking it in the ass in hell. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Saddam: "What the hell do you mean you're a Democrat?!?"

Movie Review: Rocky Balboa

What can I say but this is a great movie. Who doesn't like to be inspired? It happens rarely enough in movies these days. Hollywood typically churns out lackluster films that leave you feeling cheated out of your money. When was the last time you left the theater with a little 'bop' in their step?

Sylvester Stallone wrote and produced this final episode in the Rocky franchise. It was clearly close to his heart and in the firm tradition of its predecessors. I don't want to be a spoiler, so I'll just recommend that you see it. If you always liked The Italian Stallion, you'll not be disappointed with this movie (BTW, Sly looks freakin' awesome at 60 and will easily shame you into the gym.)

This is Freakin' Cool

Probably old news to some of you, but I wish that I'd known about this before I made my Christmas list...


What I love most is the "old school" feel of it all. I mean, the narrator could have worked on a classic like, "Nuclear Power: Crisp, Clean Energy of the Future" (circa 1950).

Insufferable

Lately my wife has indicated to me that I've become insufferable. As far as I can tell I have crossed over into some sort of cockiness. While I can chalk some of that up to holiday stressors, she is right. I see where she is coming from, but there is a method to my madness.

Confidence is an extremely interesting attribute. For some, it never materializes and in others it is fleeting. Some are even-keeled and still others suffer from delusions of grandeur. The latter is known as arrogance (the evil doppelganger of confidence).

A few close friends and I recently started a business. In short, we provide security solutions in extremely hostile environs. This is a fairly large step to take in life but I do so with very little hesitation. As I've written before, I was taught something about success. Success occurs when preparation and opportunity coalesce. I have been preparing to run a corporation for some time, and now opportunity presents itself. Welkommen.

I have had a lot of triumphs in my life and many failures. Fear of failure haunted me in my youth, but is no longer a companion. Prime Minister Churchill once noted that, "Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam. " Part of mitigating this fear of failure involves false motivation.

False motivation was a technique that I learned in my earliest years as an infantryman. Without digressing into war stories, suffice it to say that the physical and mental discomfort that an infantryman endures on a regular day crushes other mortals. When life is at its worst, it may be time to turn to false motivation. It is my experience that false motivation quickly turns into the genuine article.

So, I have become cocky, but falsely so. I am merely providing myself with the energy required to make decisions that will affect friends and family in this business venture. It is a surprisingly heavy burden to carry. It is more difficult for me than being for directly responsible for men in combat. Isn't it funny that my "comfort zone" is combat? This burden has transferred here to the Squirrel's Nest and now the wife tires of my energy and incessant talk of business.

Just awhile honey. I'm getting myself psyched for this new battle.

Merry Christmas!

I'm happy to be home this year and think of two close friends, Ted and Mike, who are overseas and missing family. God Bless you and God bless the United States of America.

Success!

All Hail JD! The bottle of single malt worked like a charm and we are back in business. See Peggy, it really does work!

WOO HOO! More crappy blogging coming to a squirrel's nest near you!

Hardy Har Har

Okay, so I finally got up just early enough to post something. Worth clicking through? You decide!

This little clip makes my back hurt.

I know a couple of people who probably reeaally need this. Buncha nancies.

Now that I have to blog from home, here is a shortened version of my workday.

Some people are just freakin' stupid.

Why in the hell didn't I think of this?!?

Realistically, he should have disabled her with a shot to the thigh.

Yearrrggghhh!

Unfortunately, I can no longer post during daylight hours (meaning at work). Unfortunately, our firewalls/web protection software thinks that blogger is a "Sex Site." Man, I freakin' wish! Anyway, as I work from 5 am until 8 pm, this will put a major damper in my posting. You poor, poor bastards! Hopefully, this too will pass.

Stuff Worth Repeating #4

"I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the long-haired heads of the enemy." - Deuteronomy 32:42

So this could mean me in the 80's hairband time... or hippies. I'll go with hippies.

Stupid Meetings

Greetings, gentle readers. I have been occupied at my day job with ridiculously long meetings (the nerve)! I only wish that they were interesting. As they are not, I’ve been brain-dead after work and not really up for posting. I’ll see if I can get the juices flowing here in awhile and get something crappy out to you soon. In the meantime, consider this an

Open Thread!

Malfunction Junction

You can tell when you have time to kill when you just click around inside Wikipedia. The cool part is that you run into pretty random cool stuff.

Now, I'm not an engineer. Nor am I happy about paying taxes. Being a transplanted farmboy, I sometimes get easily lost in big cities. Hell, I thought that it was just me... that I was some sort of hayseed. Now I know better. Check out these incomprehensible modern marvels.

What the Hell?

WTF?

Are those graves on that green, green grass?

Um, yeah. Just take a left on 41...

It's alot like a creepy house with stairways that go nowhere.

I was headed toward Topeka and ended up in New Zealand!

Probably not as bad as it looks.

I'm pretty sure that the term "Crazy Ivan" didn't originate with subsurface tactics.

Sure I've got directions... got a pencil? Vodka?

Stuff Worth Repeating #3

"... America is simultaneously the world's most loved, hated, admired and feared nation... In short, we're Frank Sinatra. And you know something, 'The Chairman' did not make his bones lying down for punks outside the Fontainebleu." - Dennis Miller

I know you aren't talking to me champ!

Martin Luther - Grave Spinning

I'm not sure whether I have mentioned it before, but I was born and raised Lutheran. Lutheran has always been Catholic Lite - half the guilt. Now, however, the moral compass has gone completely astray from the teachings of Luther. Some examples:

Ordain homosexuals? Sure! Why not! As long as they're not sucking MY dick.

What should we spend our limited resources on? Not shoring up a crumbling membership... let's tackle AIDS in Africa!

As a Church we have to have a voice. Let's raise that voice IN DEFENSE OF PALASTINE OVER ISRAEL.

Now an interesting article on yet another bunch of ELCA (Exceptionally Liberal Church of America) asswipes who have it all figured out. Read it and tell me where I'm wrong.

My mom's gonna be pissed, but I'm done with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But, she can't be as nearly as pissed at me as I am with the Church.

Improvisation

You know what I like best about "Joe?" Um... other than his serious sense of humor and ability to do a hard goddamn job on little sleep, etc... is his ingenuity! Note to the left: We are not mindless robots. Note to future employers: This is the kind of stuff that you need on your rolls.

ISG Disappoints

So, the Iraq Study Group has released their report and there is really nothing new to add. Frankly, the vast majority of the Group are a bunch of old, egotistic windbags. (Full disclosure: I know most of the guys on the Council of Colonels that contributed to the Study... and they are seriously the best and brightest that we have in uniform.) I have worked on many a task force and study group and let me tell you, they are not particularly focus driven.

I'm not sure how I missed it, but Hugh Hewitt has been tracking some of their "research." For example: Mark Danner of the New York Review of Books. You should remember that particular periodical was proud to publish an early version of the Walt/Mearsheimer report castigating those who support Israel. How about journalist Tom Ricks, who accused Israel of allowing Hezb'allah to retain rockets, to engender an attack, to give Israel an excuse to attack Lebanon. They also heard from "expert" Tom Friedman of the New York Times, who pushed the "Saudi Peace Plan."

I think that we all need to remember something. Journalists are good at one thing... writing. They are not policy experts, foreign area experts, economists, pharmacists, businessmen, etc. You don't go to a journalist to learn about how crunchy peanut butter is made. You don't go to a journalist to learn about how to determine victory in Iraq. Hell, I don't even go to them for news!

For Pete's sake! As the title points out... I'm disappointed.

Update: Here is the link to the Executive Summary and here is the link to the full report.

BTW - These guys make Tolstoy look like a posterchild for brevity.

Stuff Worth Repeating #2

"What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women!" - Conan the Barbarian

Nice, but if I don't leave work soon, I'll be lamenting the frying pan hurled at my skull when I get home. Night.

Real.Testicular.Fortitude.

Worrisome

Who knew that the end of the Cold War would usher in such troubling times. For a time, it appeared that capitalism and reform were sweeping the world and quality of life was increasing dramatically. As President Kennedy once noted, "A rising tide lifts all boats." The evidence for the triumph of capitalism is visible in even the most remote of third-world countries. It really is incredible. But then comes the troubling times...

Leaving the strife of radical Islam aside, the threat of anti-capitalism and anti-American forces are growing in the world; spawned by jealousy. In Venezuela, Mr. Chavez is acting like a cliche tin-pot dictator, and a huge amount of the population is eating it up! Mexico's southern Oaxaca Province is in the throes of revolution. This is interesting because the communists barely lost the Mexican Presidential election early this year. Nicaragua elected Manuel Ortega (a devoted communist) as President. Russia is ruled by mobsters. Socialism dominates all political thought throughout Europe. Worrisome times.

Ironically, some of the most stalwart defenders (and beneficiaries) of capitalism lay in the States of the former Soviet Union. Vietnam, India, and China are becoming havens for corporations and favorable labor laws. This too, is worrisome, because of the paradigm change.

The only reasonable people left in the world, in my opinion, are the Australians. They are no-nonsense and know their place in the world. Thank God.

Here in America, we are a deeply divided people that are wickedly spoiled. No doubt, we will have the strength to weather the coming storm, but I will be interested to see who will weather it best. I plan to be among those that not only survive the storm, but will thrive in it.

Ambassador Bolton Resigns

Well, this is disappointing. As I understand it, should he have stayed on without the appropriate Congressional approvals (highly unlikely), he would have done so gratis. Ah well. The truth is that the U.N. is a magnificently corrupt and bloated entity that has not been truly relevant... ever. Having worked with the U.N. in many countries, I can honestly say that the vast majority of programs suck. That being said, the World Food Program (WFP) appeared to be well run and somewhat less corrupt. Nice.

So bottom line is that while I personally think that Ambassador Bolton is the Bee's Knee's, he simply isn't worth the amount of energy it will take to fight.

GOP Self-Assessment

As I mentioned yesterday, Ben Franklin once famously advised, "Listen to your enemies, they will tell you your faults." Needless to say, this is excellent advice and that which we should heed as we work to redefine the party of conservatism.

As a friend of mine recently wrote (sorry, can't find the link):

It is important to remember that "Conservatism" is not an ideology; it is a predisposition in defense of tradition. In the American political sense of the word, conservatism means to defend the original and traditional interpretation of the Constitution.

The Founders, and generations of Americans thereafter, did not consider that the federal government created by the Constitution had the authority to meddle in the private economy, or that federal courts had the power to legislate, or that the people were unfit to govern themselves through their state legislatures.

All of these traditional (i.e., conservative) understandings of the meaning of the Constitution began to be shredded in the 20th century, beginning with the New Deal and continuing through the Warren Court, then particularly Roe v Wade, and so on until culminating in Lawrence v Texas which reversed a precedent only seventeen years previous, and in the process overturned centuries of Anglo-American jurisprudence.

So precisely what is it that our political enemies have to say about us? What are our faults? It seems to me that the "faults" most attributed to Republicans have little to do with the precept of conservative thought that I mentioned above. Instead, they are more simply drive-by criticisms like "Bush is an idiot." While I respect the President and his accomplishments well enough, he is hardly a conservative and never pretended to be otherwise. I do believe that he has made more poor policy and personnel decisions than any Chief Executive since President Carter. But, using Ambassador Franklin's advice, it is duly noted.

The second glaring example is the charge of a "culture of corruption." Again, it is hard to argue that we have positioned ourselves on the moral high ground in this regard. While I still find it difficult to believe that the party of the Daly Empire and Tammany Hall is somehow less corrupt, we clearly have allowed power to influence the worst in our leaders. Duly noted. President Reagan's 11th Commandment aside, we need to diligently cull our ranks of the worst offenders.

The third appears to be an indictment of social conservativism. Charges of "turning back the clock" and the like are laughable. But Congress only called for a special session one time in recent memory. Do you remember over what issue? Ms. Terry Schivao. After all of the crises we have been through and all of the issues that needed addressing, all we have to show is grandstanding and a massively failed effort. Maybe the charge should be more closely considered.

Clearly, Conservatives have a lot of soul-searching to do in the near future. This self-assessment should include Old Ben's advice. Instead of turning red in anger at the charges of the DNC, we should decide whether it is a fault that we can (or should) counter. Otherwise, the conservative movement will find itself forced to move increasingly left. To paraphrase Mr. Winston Churchill, "If you want nothing done, the National Republican Party are the best men for the task. They have no equal."

GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!