I guess giving the guy a bad reference just wasn't enough.

I try not to just rant and rave around here. I try to give you useful information, as well.

Amy found this the other day on an item we bought at the Commissary.



You know some fool complained after drinking the blue water.

I was going through some files on the server at work earlier this week. Found this and realized that I had never posted it here.

Ths was taken about 30 minutes before we boarded the buses to go to the airport, to fly to Iraq. February 10th, 2004.

You can see my wife to the far left in the dark jacket and blue shirt.



Fifteen people in the picture have either transferred to another unit or left the Army since we got back this February.

Why report the truth when rumors and sheer fiction are more interesting?

Especially, if you can get elected officials to repeat it on Oprah!

More untruth about what happened on the Gulf Coast around the two hurricanes being debunked.

To include:

"Here's the truth. Many black people were harmed by Katrina because of where they lived relative to the path of the hurricane and the location of their neighborhoods below sea level and their refusal or inability to obey the mandatory evacuation orders for New Orleans. This is not racism. This is a matter of geography, weather patterns, and poverty or confusion. It has nothing to do with purposeful mistreatment of blacks by whites. Poverty and confusion, certainly big factors here, were in no sense caused by white mistreatment of blacks unless it was white mistreatment of blacks that ended many decades ago."

Turns out that almost all of the reports of violence at the SuperDome and the New Orleans Convention Center were made up.

When you look at the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers explaining what the framers intended, you find that National Constitution Day is unConstitutional.

This is article on how the downside of the current state of the Presidency is only exceeded by the state of the Democratic Party.

It ends with:

"In foreign policy and even in many of his domestic initiatives, this Republican president has achieved a neat trick. He has assumed policies usually associated with the most honored Democrats. The almost unprecedented anger against him is the anger once exhibited by Midwestern and small-town Republicans as they watched FDR pass them by. The shrieks heard from the Democrats these days puts me in mind of one of my most deeply held beliefs about politics, to wit: Rather than being shaped by principles or by interests, most political issues are shaped by mental illness, namely the need of some citizens to be perpetually angry."

A great piece on the President's polling numbers. Check it out.

The link is to an article on The American Spectator, by John Connly Walsh. Mr. Walsh is in Baghdad writing for The American Spectator.

In his article, he points out that, despite what most of the press is reporting: we are winning in Iraq; Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average Iraqi want us there, and
are in no rush for us to leave; the Iraqi Army is becoming a viable force to handle what needs to be done in Iraq.

He, also, points out that it is going to be a long haul. If you have noticed most of the violence in Iraq, lately, has not been directed at US Forces. It has been directed upon Iraqi civilians. Mr. Walsh says that, if you look a little deeper than the surface, almost all of the violence is part of the ongoing conflict in that country between Shiite and Sunni factions.

The next to last thing that really caught my eye was Mr. Walsh pointing out what I knew to be true from my time in Iraq. Most journalists never leave the relative safety of Baghdad. Someone told them the "Green Zone" is safe, so, they don't leave. Which is the first fallacy that our nation's press has bought into. When I was there, the bases in Tikrit, Saddam's home town, were being attacked less often, with less intensity than the Green Zone, but it wasn't safe for many dignitaries to come to see us. The next thing that is a load of organic fertilizer is the assumption that the press can go to the Green Zone, stay there and accurately report on what is going on in entire country. Iraq is approximately twice the size of Idaho and staying on a military compound the size of a small town in America is not the way to accurately report what is going on. The area that I was in was about 60-70 miles north of Baghdad. 1st ID's area of responsibility was about the size of West Virginia, and the Green Zone was not part of it.

Mr. Walsh closes with quoting British Prime Minister Tony Blair's acceptance of the medal that Congress gave him:

"Toward the end of his acceptance speech, Blair took careful note of what must cross the mind of every American by saying to us:

'And I know it's hard on America, and in some small corner of this vast country, out in Nevada or Idaho or these places I've never been to, but always wanted to go... I know out there there's a guy getting on with his life, perfectly happily, minding his own business, saying to you, the political leaders of this country, 'Why me? Why us? And why America?''

The Prime Minister answered his own question:

'Because destiny put you in this place in history, in this moment in time, and the task is yours to do.'"

A guy that was browsing through my blog, Doug, left the above link in his comments to my "Stuck on Stupid" post.

If you are now a fan of LTG Honore, go check it out!

Imageshack, the service I use for all of the pictures on this blog, has started to offer photo-blogging. I've started one.

The link under the title of this blog will take you to the acommpanying photo-blog for this site.

While I am giving credit where it is due, you will notice that once you go to my photo-blog that most of the pictures feature myself, my dogs, etc. ... but very few of them have my wife, Amy, in them. It's because she took almost all of the photos in the photo-blog.

If you see something that you enjoy, she deserves the credit.

(The picures in this post are hotlinks ... meaning you have to click on them to see them full-size.)

I know that I have not posted to my blog like I did the first 6 months or so that it was up.

There are a lot of reasons for that.

The primary reason that this blog was started was to have an easy way for me to communicate to my family, as a whole, when I was in Iraq. General information for everyone in the family was posted here. It was a time saver, and an easier way to communicate as much as was possible.

The secondary reason was for me to have a place to put "my stuff". Multiple people in my life have told me that I am a pretty decent writer. Before you think something otherwise, let me just say that they might be right, but only if I have the opportunity to put what I have to say through a good proofreader and editor. My wife has been the best "filter" to run my output through since ... forever. Anything I have to say sounds better if she fine tunes it for me.

Since I returned from Iraq, the first reason has pretty much disappeared, and the second ... well, Amy hears firsthand most of what I would write, and it never gets here.

Then, there is the fact that I have been pretty busy.

Work has been pretty nuts, until recently.

Then, there is the last reason.

I/we have been having a blast!

Let me explain:

To put things in perspective, my last State-side duty station was in Lawton, OK. A town of about 100,000.

I am, currently, stationed in Bamberg, Germany. A major industrial center for this area of Germany, but it is about 2/3rds the size of Lawton. (If your car has any parts that are made by Bosch, they are, probably, manufactured a few blocks from where I am sitting at the moment.) I am in small-town, southern Germany.

All of these small towns in the region (to include Austria) have town bands or blaskapelles.

I play in one. I am a tuba/trombone player for the blaskapelle of the town of Schonnbrun.

In this area of the world, that is a big deal. My unit, the 1st Infantry Division Band, was sent to Austria, recently, to play at a fest (party) that involved the entire town of Grosse-Saint Florien because their blaskapelle was celebrating it's 150th anniversary, and getting new uniforms!

Lately, if my unit has not been playing somewhere on the weekend, the Schonnbrun blaskapelle has.

The nice thing is that, thanks to my wife, I have photos.

This first batch is from a town fest I played on September 4th in a town west of Bamberg called Kemmer.

This first picture is of all the blaskapelle's that were there for this fest. I am not visible in this picture, because my blaskapelle is about 60 yards away.


You can, just, see me playing in this "mass band" setting, a few minutes later. I'm the tall tuba player in the back.


I don't have a great command of German. No where near what I was able to do in Spanish when I was stationed in Panama. But, I have made some really good friends in the blaskapelle. At the same performance, I was able to get some good pictures of the group.

In this picture, starting in the bottom, foreground, the red hair you see is my wife, Amy. The woman next to her is the wife of Rudy Stark, the music librian and uniform keeper for the blaskapelle. Their daughter, Teresa, is the best drummer we have. Rudy is, also, next to Freddie (the other Army musician in the blaskapelle) the best euphonium player in the blaskapelle. The older gentelman that almost looks like he is looking into the camera is Herbert. He plays fluglehorn with the blaskapelle. He plays a solo version of "Amazing Grace" that is so beautiful that it will almost make you cry. The girl with the reddish hair (and the Z-shaped part in her hair) wearing the traditional Bavarian dress or dirndl is Anna. She plays trumpet. She speaks English very well. She is university student in Bamberg.I have never learned the name of the girl next to her, the one with the sunglasses on her head. She plays clarinet and sax.


This is Rudy. He runs a business like Roto-Rooter.

The way I ended up playing in this band is that the other player on my horn, euphonium, at work, Freddie Valenzuela, lives a couple of doors down from Rudy in the little town of Schonbrun. It's about a 25 mintue drive outside of Bamberg. Rudy, Freddie, and a few other people from the blaskapelle got to talking one night when Freddie was eating at the only restaurant (which is also the brewery, hotel, and convention center(BTW, that Gashaus/Braurei was founded in 1789, the year the US Consititution was ratified!)) in Schonnbrun. They told him how they were hurting for low brass players. I was looking for a good town band, and Freddie talked me into it. (He didn't have to try to hard.)

Rudy speaks less English than I speak German. But, I like to think we understand each other ... too well at times. Rudy embodies, for me, the German word "Gemuchlietkeit". There is no English equivalent. The best way to put it is that it is a combination of : good friends, good music, good food, good beer, good conversation, ... good times.


Starting with the guy grinning at the camera, that is Lothar. Lothar plays euph with the blaskapelle. He is one of the Information Systems (computer geek) for Bosch in Bamberg. He, also, has a really sweet new BMW 3-series. I drove it around Schonnbrun, once. (The B in BMW stands for Bavaria. The German state I live in. Having a BMW here is like own a Chrysler if you live in Detroit.) Next to him is Mattheus, one of the other two tuba players. The guy with the glasses in the foreground is Christoph. He plays trumpet in the blaskapelle.

Blaskapelle's are, generally, one of a town's local non-profit arts organizations. Not unlike Lawton Community Theater that Amy worked for while we were there. Christoph is the current President of the Board for the blaskapelle.


In this picture, starting at the left, you have Lothar, once again. Then, the young man that appears to be picking his nose, but is not, is another euph player in blaskapelle. The young lady with the mug of Coca Cola is Teresa, Rudy's daughter, and the best drummer in our blaskapelle.


Most blaskapelle performances are a parade followed by a performance in a fest tent at the end of the parade. These pictures were taken at a fest where we only performed at the parade. Here is a picture of the, comparatively, tiny fest tent that we ate lunch in:

Too Late!

My First Sergeant(1SG) came to formation on Friday with a laptop computer and played the mp3 of LTG Honore from that press conference I mentioned below.

The unit, as a whole, loved it.

We laughed when he said, "Don't get stuck on stupid."

Then, literally, did the ROFLMAO thing when he said, "You are stuck on stupid. I'm not answering that question."

I had to have the mp3.

It was a slow day at work. So, I went back to my office and tried to find it on the internet. Couldn't find it. I went and asked the 1SG where he got it. He showed me where he got the link.

In the process of getting it, I found the following places: SteynOnline, which I have referenced below; Radio Blogger, where I got my link to the mp3; Neal Boortz's site, where I found the link to the link for the mp3.

They all look pretty thought provoking.

Let me keep that in context. I find Rush Limbaugh thought provoking. I don't agree with him. In fact, I find myself, very often, arguing with my radio when I listen to him. I find Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (I haven't lived in the States since 2002, I have no idea if that show is still on or if Bill Maher is still hosting it) thought provoking. ... I just couldn't watch it. The station that aired it, locally, played it from 11:30 to midnight. I got so wound up from watching it that I, normally, couldn't get to sleep for an hour or so. That's not a good thing when you have to be at work a 6:30 AM.

Whether it's Rush, or some left wing nutjob, (yes, by comparison, I just called Rush a right wing nutjob) I enjoy listening to what they have to say. It makes me think. I have to formulate, and articulate why they are "nutjobs".

There is verse in the Bible, Proverbs 27:17 in the King James Version, that states:

Iron sharpeneth iron ; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Countenance can mean face or mind/soul/thoughts/thinking.

In short, someone that disagrees with you is not, necessarily, your enemy.

I know it. I admit it. It's a fault that I am developing. I've always had it to a certain degree. But, now, it's getting really bad.

I don't know if it's a year in Korea (which just happened to be when North Korea started all this nuclear weapons stuff) , then, almost back-to-back, year in Iraq, or I'm a few months away from 40, and I'm getting to be the "crusty old Sergeant".

I'm reminded of the train conductor in The Quiet Man who keeps telling his co-worker "If you knew your country's history ..."

Because, it is apparent that most Americans do not. I'm not talking about your basic redneck type, either. I'm talking about journalists, politicians, FEMA personnel, military personnel that refer to Katrina as the worst natural disaster in US history.

The only reply to that is "not even close." The San Francisco Earth Quake around the turn of the last century was much worse, in terms of natural disasters. The one in '89 was, probably, even worse than Katrina.

Not only that! But, it is not even the worst hurricane in US history ... no matter how you consider it. CNN has a great report on the worst hurricanes in US history. They look at it from several different perspectives: greatest loss of life, most monetary damage, most intense. In each of those categories, Katrina doesn't make the Top 10, because the report gives the Top 10 in each of those three categories.

What's frightening is that this storm should have come as no surprise. CNN ran this story in 2000 about the hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900 that was probably the worst hurricane ever to hit the US. They ran this story about the meteorologist that blew off the storm, at the time.

What's even worse is that you have "tree hugger" types blaming the intensity of Katrina, and Rita on global warming. If you read, and pay attention to any of these reports, then you will notice that the weather experts cite, almost every time, that hurricanes and tropical storms go in 30-40 year cycles.

Now, go back to the first CNN Special Report that I talked about. Look at the dates on those storms. The first group, chronologically, of those storms were on or around the year 1900. Then, there is a gap in the dates. The next ones, chronologically, were in 1935-1938. Clearly, within that 30-40 year cycle. Then, there is another lull, until the late 60's to 1970 (to include Camille that hit New Orleans in 1968).

There were a couple in the early 90's, Hugo and Andrew. But, they were not that intense, and there was not that much loss of life, comparatively. They caused a lot of monetary damage. If you read further, though, you found that they hit areas that were unprepared for storms, and, like New Orleans, they did not believe they would be hit. Both Hugo and Andrew were, actually, pretty low intensity storms, comparatively. The low intensity of both of those storms was a major contributing factor to the monetary damage that they did. I know it sounds weird, but lower intensity hurricanes move slower than those of higher intensity. So, Hugo and Andrew stayed longer in one place than, let's say, Katrina or Rita. Giving the storm more opportunity to cause damage to infrastructure than a more intense storm.

Back to our chronology!

We were in 1968-1970, before we made that detour for Hugo and Andrew.

That would be, what? 35-37 years ago, right? And, if you have been doing the math as we went along this timeline, then, you have noticed that each group of bad hurricanes has followed that 30-40 year cycle.

Assuming that the people who study the history of weather can do basic math, and have a fairly firm grasp of the obvious, then, 35-37 years ago for the last group of bad hurricanes would put us in prime territory, chronologically, for the next groups of storms, right?

So, my spray can of Right Guard deodorant, my parents SUV, etc. have less to do with the current storms than the structure of the Earth's atmosphere, the currents of the Atlantic, etc. ... in other words, the environment.

To all those "environmental" types out there (to include vegetarians), it has been proven that the methane from the farts of the world's cow population is more of a contributing factor, historically, than all of the cars, spray cans with flourocarbons, and industrial exhaust, ever, so, go do your part and go to McDonald's and have a burger to cut down on those bovine emissions.

The link above is to an in-depth article on the Memorial that is being planned for Flight 93 from 9/11. It is being called the "Crescent of Embrace." This gives you an idea what it will look like:


For those of you that don't immediately recall, Flight 93 was the flight that went down in rural Pennsylvania. And the crescent is the internationally recognized symbol of the Islamic faith.

I first heard about this in an article by Mark Steyn. You have to scroll down a bit to get to it. It is called FLIGHT 93, RE-HIJACKED. It's worth a read. In fact, I found a lot of what he had to say worth reading.

They have even done a parody pic on Sacred Cow Burgers. If you've been keeping up lately, I have been using a lot of their stuff. The guy who did the pic wrote some commentary on the situation. He wasn't quite as polite as Michelle Malkin or Mark Steyn, but I don't you will be left with any doubts about where he stands. Here is his pic:



If the wingnuts on the left want to "embrace" something, then they ought to embrace this:

The Muslim extremist element has decided that the West are the, to quote a Muslim speaker I read recently, "enemies of God." And they have decided that America is the pinnacle of Western culture, and, therefore, the enemy that should be struck and killed, first. Their vision of how the world should be is typified by the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

To this end, Osama bin Laden and al Quaeda literally declared on the US. Not the US military, but every man, woman and child in our country. The choice is be Taliban-ized or be dead. When the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, etc., etc., up through the attack on the USS Cole, did not get our attention, they sent 19 men to hijack 4 planes on September 11, 2001. They took those planes, with their thousands of gallons of jet fuel, a piece, and turned them into guided missiles ... weapons of mass destruction.



They struck at the financial center of our nation ... Two of the tallest buildings ever built in the history of the world. Buildings where 50,000 people worked daily. Thank the Lord that they struck so early in the day or the loss of life there would have been even worse.

They struck at the nerve center of our military, killing almost 200 members of our armed services.

None of this, really, takes into account the hundreds of people that were on those planes.

And, the devastation could have been ... was supposed to have been much worse. Once again, thank God, that the hijackers on Flight 93 took so long to take control of that plane and turn it in the direction they were supposed to go. That gave the passengers on the flight the time to figure out what had happened and what was going to happen them.

Where was that plane headed?

I don't know that we will ever know, thankfully. "Experts" have surmised that it was aimed for the White House, or the Capitol building. Imagine what it would have been like to lose Congress in one fell swoop. I know I gritch about Congress, but it would have brought our government to a stop. Effectively, decapitated it.

Once again, thankfully, we only have to imagine that. Those heroes on that plane refused to be victims, and, instead, chose to be heroes. Knowing they were going to die, chose to keep the hijackers from taking anyone else with them. I don't know about you, but I will never forget the words that Todd Beamer said, "“Are you ready, guys? Let'’s roll!"

That day could have been a total defeat for America, but thanks to hundreds of policeman and firefighters, and the passengers on that plane, UPI'’s Jim Bennett wrote, "“The Era of Osama lasted about an hour and a half or so, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."

Tolerance, embracing different viewpoints, or any of the rest of that "touchy-feely" multicultural diversity, politically correct crap is the answer.

To those on the left, who advocate this type of memorial for Flight 93, or the travesty that is being erected at Ground Zero in New York, I suggest you embrace this:


DON'T GET STUCK ON STUPID!

(If you are interested in hearing more from New York City about the almost-sacrilege that is being committed at Ground Zero, read this, and to hear how even Hillary Clinton
is offended by it, read this.)

I'll close with another pic from Sacred Cow Burgers:

There are times you see something and you want to laugh. However, what comes out is "That's not right!" ...

Then, you chuckle.

I saw this picture, and now I am using it as my desktop's wallpaper.

I found this cool site that sells Tshirts that are just WRONG!

I laughed my rear end off the other night going through all that they had to sell. I'm going to share some of my favorites with you.











The center one:

I have a new hero.

In case you didn't hear about it, or hear it, here is your chance. LTG(Lieutenant General) Russell Honore, the three star general leading the military's efforts down on the Gulf Coast, was present at a press conference that Mayor Nagin of New Orleans was having. Mayor Nagin, apparently, lost control of the situation and found himself incapapble of putting out the information that needed to be given to the people of New Orleans. LTG Honore stepped in and took control of the situation. The Free Republic has a transcript of the exchange.

Finally, a national figure has stood up to the press and told them to keep their eye on the ball.



And as for Mayor Nagin .... well, he seems to still be doing what he does best ...

I like the way this guy thinks. Here is his list of things that he would do to fix our government.

A fresh voice on oil and the problems associated with it.

Actually, you know, this time, I think I might actually agree with that ... if you are talking about the right "government". I don't think the federal did a single thing wrong.

The state or local though ....

Her motives less than completely pure, but ...

There times that I wonder which is more ridiculous: sites like this and the Onion, or the real news?

This is an interesting editorial by Larry Elder.

One thing he doesn't address is why didn't these two groups come up with this statement earlier?

Muslim extremists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. They bombed our embassies in Africa in the late 90's. In 2000, they attacked the US Cole and kill 17 sailors, and then, of course, 9/11 in 2001.

So, when did these Islamic clerics take their stand?

Last month.

Read the article. They don't sound anymore sincere the more you read.

This is a great article. I especially liked the part about MoveOn.Org supporter.

It's amazing how obtuse people are getting. I just want to say that if you aren't happy with the relief efforts in New Orleans, there is nothing keeping you from getting off your butt, going down there and helping out. It doesn't take any special skills to hand out bottles of water, cook canned soup, etc. Otherwise, shutup because all you are doing is making a dangerous job more difficult for those who are actually doing some good.

I am getting really sick of the mainstream media in this country. Whether it is the war in Iraq, 9/11, or Hurricane Katrina, they just don't pay attention to what are the obivous problems.

By who and what they choose to cover, (for instance Jesse Jackson's and Al Sharpton's criticism of the government on the response to Katrina) they remind me of part of Michael Douglas' speech in "The American President":

We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.

You could put any major media outlet's name, or many congressmen, and other political "talking head's" name in for Bob Rumson, and for the media outlets change "win elections" to "get high ratings".

The ironic thing is that Michael Douglas portrayed a Democratic President. The opposition to him in that movie is the way that contemporary Democrats behave.

The link is to an article written by Ben Stein. I didn't know all of his resume. I just thought he was an actor.

The Urban Legends Reference Pages site has this to say about Stein:
Many people are evidently unfamiliar with Ben Stein as a political figure, knowing him primarily through his acting roles in films such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and his television work (as the monotonic science teacher Mr. Cantwell in the TV series The Wonder Years, and as the host of the game show Win Ben Stein's Money.) However, Ben Stein, a lawyer by training, has also served as a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon, has to date authored sixteen books (both novels and non-fiction efforts), and continues to write editorials and columns for a number of publications, including The American Spectator.

We need more people out there with this kind of common sense.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.

Now it's conclusively documented that the UN is a mess that can't do it's job.

It's back to something I posted shortly after I started this blog: Name one major thing, since the creation of the UN in the late 40's, that the UN has done where their involvement made things better.

Keep in mind that one of the first major actions that the UN undertook was the creation of the state of Israel after Britain pulled out of Palestine.