baldilocks

Lesson Learned

It appears that the military won't be having any more incidents like the one in which Jessica Lynch was taken captive. Guess the “brave Iraqi resistance” will have to go back to ambushing lone soldiers or shooting at soldiers who aren't able to shoot back. Or maybe they’ll have to go back to blowing up innocents to get these kinds of numbers:

SAMARRA, Iraq — American forces killed 46 Iraqis and captured eight others Sunday who were trying to ambush them in the northern city of Samarra

Looks like the Geneva Convention may apply.

Many of the dead Iraqi attackers were found wearing uniforms of the Fedayeen (search), a militia loyal to Saddam Hussein, according to Lt. Col. William MacDonald of the 4th Infantry Division.

Was Iraq a signatory? If so, would the Fedayeen fall under that agreement? Talk to me, lawyers.

Loaded for Bear

More Republicans/conservatives here in Cali than you ever thought possible, eh? I’ve re-added the individually-listed members of the Bear Flag League to this page. Justene has the weekend roundup of the “Left” Coast.

Run, Jesse, Run!

Many, if not most, black Americans have been onto the antics of Jesse Jackson for quite some time. Finally, some of that disgust is making it to the major media.

November 25, 2003 — A Loop rally demanding more jobs for young black men turned into a protest against the leadership of Reverend Jesse Jackson. [SNIP]

"We are tired of coming here to voice our opinion when we got African-American people sitting at the table and saying they represent our interests and playing this puppet game," said one protester.[SNIP]

"They lashed out at Dr. King, they lashed out at Nelson Mandela, they lashed out at Jesus, so all of those who fight for change become the object of frustration," said Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow-Push Coalition.

Get off the Cross, Jesse. Jesus died so you wouldn’t have to.

I once got into the usual discussion about “black leaders” in which Jackson was held up as Exhibit A. I disputed the assertion that black Americans held this man up as a leader and said that it was white guilt that had created the Jesse Jackson persona and problem. After all, black-owned corporations aren’t being shaken down by Jackson for hush money.

Jesse Jackson is white America’s problem.

How about this: the next corporation that finds itself in Jackson’s crosshairs grows some testicles and says “sue us.” Yes, you, too, can be free at last.

MilBlogs Roundup

Dave at Better Living Through Blogging has a rule about houseguests. I’m saying, “amen, brother.”

The Night Before Kicking A** from sgt hook.

The Paratrooper of Love reminds us that we only have a few more days to send some love to the troops in Iraq in time for Christmas.

One of the Psychotic Duo is learning the fundies about some psychotic members of a certain group.

The ArmyWife’s fighting half isn’t coming home on leave yet. Go help her keep her chin up.

Major Pain has a turkey adventure that rivals that infamous WKRP episode. “Oh the humanity!”

The Doc advises you tripods to regularly inspect the jewels for flaws.

And, the Atheist Soldier, ironically, reminds us of our blessings and his.

More later.

Curses, Foiled Again!

Here's what I like about the [president’s Baghdad] trip. It's going to make liberals scream like a bear trap just closed on their privates. –Steve H. of Little Tiny Lies

And it is extremely entertaining to read/listen to.

Matthew Yglesias:

Consider, however, whether you think that the leaders of the Democratic Party would have been wildly opposed to taking a little Thanksgiving-time trip of their own to pose with the troops for photo ops. Seems to me that they would love to have done that. But they weren't invited.

Perhaps Matt missed Senator Hillary Clinton’s Thanksgiving-time “photo op” with the troops in Afghanistan. Understandable, what with it being overshadowed by the president’s little surprise and all. That said, I wonder whether the senator needed an engraved invitation from GWB to go. Knowing her persona, I doubt it. To be fair to the senator: what she did was just as honorable as the presidential deeds of the day, but it's not the same in scope. There’s only one Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces and she ain’t it.

I’ll even go out on a limb and say that most of the troops would rather see the Big Guy, rather than any senator or representative. Why? First, because the president is the one who sent them in the first place. Oh sure, the congress people voted for it, but the president had the final word.

And, secondly, because most of the military loves GWB, make no mistake about that. We didn’t see soldiers in Afghanistan whooping, hollering and jumping up and down when Senator Clinton walked into the DINFAC in Kabul (or wherever it was).

And here’s this gem in the Washington Post:

But Philip Taubman, Washington bureau chief of the New York Times, said that "in this day and age, there should have been a way to take more reporters. People are perfectly capable of maintaining a confidence for security reasons. It's a bad precedent." Once White House officials "decided to do a stealth trip, they bought into a whole series of things that are questionable."

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, criticized the White House correspondents who made the trip without spilling the secret. "That's just not kosher," he said. "Reporters are in the business of telling the truth. They can't decide it's okay to lie sometimes because it serves a larger truth or good cause."

So there should have been more reporters on the trip because reporters are good at keeping secrets, but a good reporter would never keep a secret.

(Perhaps Taubman and Rosenstiel should have compared notes so that their incredibly stupid statements would have at least not contradicted each other.)

At least some Democrats and Leftists acknowledge that the trip was a bold and generous move. Or so I hear.

(Thanks to commenter Crimson Oath and to Dean)

Talk to the Hand

The president refuses to take questions from the press during his surprise Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad. It was all about the troops.

*****
Tee-hee! Heads are exploding all over Democraticunderground.com. You know, for a guy reputed to be of less than average intelligence, President Bush sure knows how to tick off the leftists.

The Short List

I’m thankful I’m not….

• Mark Morford
• Hillary Clinton (overshadowed again)
• A member of the British Political Cartoon Society
• Living in Montgomery County Maryland with a kid attending public school
• Stephen King (poor guy)
• French
• Hungry
• Cold
• Oppressed

Sneaky

The POTUS is in Iraq.

I thought all those reports of him being in Crawford seemed a little off. They'd mention that he was spending Thanksgiving with wife, children and parents, but there were no pictures.

Nice OPSEC.

What's Next?

No more master/slave in the machinery, eh? What’s next in the PC world? Is Nabisco going to have to start calling these

something else?

(Thanks to Donnie)

Fat Chance

I was feeling a bit lazy this morning. A few aches and pains were nagging at me, so I contemplated skipping today’s workout. Then I turned on the TV, switched to FoxNews and saw an 800 pound woman who is suing the federal government. I was outta here.

The woman is receiving disability payments because she’s so obese that she cannot work. She suing the government because she requested a new apartment that was, er, more suitable to her needs (read: big enough for a woman who is nearly six times the weight of a normal-sized woman)and they didn't get it done fast enough for Her Majesty's liking. Though the government is now modifying her original apartment to suit her disability, she said that she’s still suing them in order to “teach them a lesson.”

Well. I wonder if the Federal government will learn the real lesson.

It’s easy to make fun of and get angry at people like this woman, but lazy scumbags are a fact of life. (Some of them aren’t even morbidly obese or even incredibly lazy.) However, if the government wanted to solve this creature's actual problem (and their own, in this case), the first step would be to recognize that the size of this woman’s apartment isn’t the problem.

It’s the size of the woman that’s the real problem.

The woman is on disability because, with her 800 plus pounds, she simply cannot move. What I wonder is this: instead of subsidizing the modification of her apartment, wouldn’t a long-term solution be better, say, subsidizing a gastric bypass operation? She certainly, er, qualifies weight-wise. Such a solution would also have the benefit of getting her off disability—assuming she has no other disabling conditions--and get her back to work.

If such people must be the beneficiaries of the tax-payers’ largess, is it too much to ask that real solutions to real problems be implemented?

NOTE: If anyone can find the link to this story, please send it to me.

UPDATE: Here's the link to the story. (Darn it, no pic. This one has to be seen to be appreciated.)

She has to call emergency services to be able to go anywhere.

(Ith, you are the best!)