From Baghdad

Greetings from Al Faw Palace, where the two-room bathrooms (which are larger than most hotel bedrooms) have their own waiting rooms, where a brutal dictator can no longer call home, and where Coalition Forces invest their lives in returning a stable way of life to the citizens of Iraq. It's a privilege to finally be here.

Allow me to dredge up a couple bygone discussions...

Cindy Sheehan may be upset over the loss of her son, but before she postures for yet another meeting with the President - perhaps she and her followers ought to talk to any one of the Iraqi citizens who are grateful (to the point of my embarassment, sometimes) for our efforts on their behalf. // How Letterman could possibly suggest that Bill O'Reilly was somehow missing the point by not feeling for that woman who clearly enjoys and exploits the partisan spotlight is beyond ludicrous. Pardon me for asking if Letterman has spent a single day of his life giving up his Freedom so an entire country might enjoy theirs... all while some dis-involved "mother" could high-jack her fallen son's sacrifice while denouncing the mission he believed in so much.

I can't say how long I'll be here, or what I'm doing - but I'll update as I can!

Re: Enlistment

Because Duty is more than a buzzword, today - I have the privilege and honor of re-enlisting in the military.

I can imagine nothing more exhiliarating for those who understand that our Rights come with Responsibilities and that "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" ought to be everyone's Right - not just the Right of those fortunate enough to find their feet planted on American soil.

For those who are content to shortchange that Right for others, I hope what goes around comes around...

Joel Stein Doesn't Support The Troops

"I don't support our troops."

- Joel Stein, LA Times

Pakistan Demands an Apology

Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, and his ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q condemned the U.S. airstrike against a village where al-Qaeda #2-man Ayman al-Zawahiri had been invited for a meal.

Fists pounding, they demand an apology!

Meanwhile, Aziz is still coming to the U.S. to encourage foreign investment and discuss security issues despite the lack of an apology for ruining a few terrorist's peaceful supper.

Yes, Aziz wants us to apologize for nailing an al-Qaeda nest... and he wants our money, too.

In only one of two nations created for a religious people (this one being an Islamic state - the Islamic Republic of Pakistan), I'm perplexed by the "surprise" some Pakistani's express when we target the Islamic Extremists (read "terrorists") they harbor.

Where is the surprise in that?!

Uh, Pakistan. "No apology for you!"

Down on Hillary's Plantation

Show me anyone with the slightest interest in politics who is giving Hillary a free pass on her MLK Day statement describing Congress as being "run like a plantation," and I'll show you someone who would Go Tell it on the Mountain about a Republican's "bigotry" if that same comment were made by a Republican about a Democrat-held institution.

This isn't Hillary's first "plantation" reference, either. Oh no... In November '04, Hillary charged that "they're running the House of Representatives like a fiefdom with Tom DeLay as, you know, in charge of the plantation."

Hillary seems to know all about the plantation - and apparently, so do those who are giving her a free pass.

I guess it's all good so long as Hill's the whitey playing the race cards.

Fo shizzle, yo.

See: Les Enfants Terrible: Hillary Knows Oppression

Image: The Old Plantation. Courtesy of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, VA. - Snagged from common-place.org at Representing Slavery: A Roundtable Discussion.

School Vouchers

If I can take my Montgomery G.I. Bill money and apply those tax-payer dollars toward a private religious school, then why can't parents of minor-students take their education dollars and apply those tax-payer funds toward a private religious school?

It's the same thing... tax-payer funds marked for education, going to private religious schools.

Whose Line Is It? - II

In a free society, there's only one check on political speech and that's the judgment of the American people... so I ask all Americans to hold their elected leaders to account and demand a debate that brings credit to our democracy, not comfort to our adversaries.

Who said it?
- No fair looking it up!


Answers to Whose Line, along with other quotes, will be posted at Res Publica.

What's Wrong With These... Teachers... Today?

The line used to go, "What's wrong with these kids today?"

The seemingly obvious answer (to me, anyway) always seems to have been "Their parents."

But.... No.

Some of their teachers are busy preying on them in their early teen and pre-teen years, while some of their other teachers simply wait for the end of the business day to - uh - get down to business.

In Pennsylvania, Patrick Collins, 54, and Angela DiBattista, 50, have reportedly been placed on paid leave while an investigation continues surrounding allegations these two school-house rabbits bumped uglies in the classroom while other teachers stood watch at the door.

No word on whether their Union contracts protect school-house fornication... but I'm sure it's their "Right."

Tsk.

Free Booze for Homeless?

A 'study' published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal indicates that free hooch may improve the health and lives of homeless alcoholics.

I'm not making this up!

Seventeen chronic alcoholics were offered a glass of wine or sherry every hour from 7am to 10pm at an Ottawa shelter over a five-month period. Three quit and three others died; however, eleven reported improved sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health.

Naturally, those reports are coming from the eleven who no longer have to worry about how and where to secure the next bottle of hooch, not from scientists or physicians.


At press time, there was no word on whether Canada would soon offer $100 bills on an hourly basis to chronic bank robbers, 14-year old girls (hey, that's their age of consent law!) to touring international sexaholic-pedophiles, or heroin to...

Wait. They do have that free heroin program. Maybe those other two ideas aren't far behind. Those silly Canadians justify all of this by suggesting they're saving more money in the long run by keeping people stoned and drunk, than by paying to scrape them up off the streets once they've tapped out or become a nuissance to the local sexaholic-pedophile tourist cash cows who demand aesthetically pleasing vacation hotspots.


So... Visit Ottawa! I hear it's nice this time of year.

Whose Line Is It?

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.

Who said it?
- No fair looking it up!

- No one guessed right this time... The Answer.