Thor’s Hall

I really need to move back to the western US…

Rules of Colorado , Wyoming , Montana , Nevada , Utah , Idaho , Oregon , New Mexico , Arizona  and the rest of the Wild West are as follows:

1. Pull your damn pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Turn your cap right, your head ain’t crooked.

3. Let’s get this straight: it’s called a ‘gravel road.’ I drive a pickup
truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you’re gonna get
dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

4. They are cattle. That’s why they smell like cattle. They smell like
money to us. Get over it. Don’t like it? I-80 & I-90 go east and west,
I-25 & I-15 goes north and south. Pick one and go.

5. So you have a $65,000 car. We’re impressed. We have $250,000 Combines
that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

6. Every person in the Wild West waves. It’s called being friendly. Try to
understand the concept.

7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of geese/pheasants/ducks/doves
are comin’ in during the hunts, we WILL shoot it outa your hand. You
better hope you don’t have it up to your ear at the time.

8. Yeah. We eat trout, salmon, deer and elk. You really want sushi and
caviar? It’s available at the corner bait shop.

9. The ‘Opener’ refers to the first day of deer season. It’s a religious
holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

10. We open doors for women. That’s applied to all women, regardless of age.

11. No, there’s no ‘vegetarian special’ on the menu. Order steak, or you
can order the Chef’s Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham and turkey.

12. When we fill out a table, there are thre e main dishes: meats,
vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup!
Oh, yeah . . We don’t care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff
you eat. It sure as hell AIN’T REAL CHILI!!

13. You bring ‘Coke’ into my house, it better be brown, wet and served
over ice. You bring ‘Mary Jane’ into my house, she better be cute, know how
to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

14. College and High School Football is as important here as the Giants,
the Yankees, the Mets, the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more
fun to watch.

15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don’t hit the water hazards – it
spooks the fish.

16. Colleges? We have them all over. We have State Universities,
Universities, and Vo-techs. They come outta there with an education
plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at everybody when they
come home for the holidays.

17. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines than
all of you put together, so don’t mess with us. If you do, you’ll get an ass
whuppin, by the best.

18. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump crap ain’t
music, anyway. We don’t want to hear it anymore than we want to see your
boxers! Refer back to item #1!

Beware Charismatic Men Who Preach ‘Change’

Beware Charismatic Men Who Preach ‘Change’

This one I just had to get up on the blog right away. I think that we are going to be seeing a lot of parallels like this one as we mover through the fall.

This is very funny in a very painful way.

Well done – watch the whole thing

So a few of the folks at VFF have headed back to Iraq as embeds and are providing their view on the changes in Iraq.  David Bellavia, is one of those and he brings his unique perspective to the current situation.

Top Ten Signs the Surge has worked:

10. The Kevlar and vest mandatory uniform from 2003 to 2007 has been replaced with the gentle request of “please wear a hat” at the Baghdad International Airport flight line.

9. The Subway in Baghdad now serves double meat on request.

8. Number one complaint of Green Zone soldiers is the lack of decals for the new Les Paul Guitar Hero: Aerosmith model edition.

7. Ambassador Ryan Crocker is releasing a Christmas Cookbook.

6. The Mehdi Army is now issuing referral letters to other terrorist organizations based out of Iran.

5. Two words: Putt Putt

4. The Marines, since losing out on precious trigger time in Anbar due to the record low violence in the area, project to be at a 25% literacy rate by 2010.

3. Most popular name in Diyala, province since 2007: Petraeus Mohammed Al Sistani Surge al Baquba

2. Iraqis are no longer of the belief that Michael Jackson is an acceptable American role model.

1. Prime Minister Maliki is new co-owner of the new Arena Football Team: Baghdad Blaze.

Bellavia is in Diyala Province.  Go read his other reports here

“Actions speak louder than words”. An old saying that remains true. Read the rest, draw your own conclusions.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Barack Obama
Campaign Speech in Berlin, Germany
July 24, 2008

Barack Obama talks.
Barack Obama talks about lifting the child from Bangladesh from poverty.
John McCain already did it.

John and Cindy McCain adopted Bridget McCain… From Bangladesh.

Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., talks on the cell phone in his hotel room on election night in Nashua, N.H., Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008. At right are his daughters Bridget and Meghan McCain. McCain won the New Hampshire Republican primary, completing a remarkable comeback and climbing back into contention for the presidential nomination. (Daylife.com)

In 1991, John and Cindy McCain adopted a beautiful young girl from Bangladesh.
The Wall Street Journal reported:

(I)n 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.

Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. “I hope she can stay with us,” she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.

…(T)here was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.

“We were called at midnight by Cindy,” Wes Gullett remembers, and “five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport.” Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, “I never saw a hospital bill” for her care.

There has been a lot of reaction to those that have been watching the events in Central Asia.  Stratfor has done their usual great job of breaking down the facts from the information available.  Others have discussed it being a time to begin dusting off the maps and plans from REFORGER (probably a good idea).

Laughing Wolf has broken it down in his own way. Pay particular attention to the last four paragraphs.  He particularly hits something that has been bouncing around unfocused in the back of my mind:

Also, if you think that the timing of this such that all major world leaders are in China for the Olympics is a coincidence, then I have some land I would like to sell you. I would very much love to know what is being openly and quietly said in Beijing right now, as I am just about willing to bet cash money that the Chinese are backing the Russian play. China has its own reasons to want this, including Taiwan. Fail to back an ally, bad enough. Cut and run, and the world-wide results would be catastrophic.

1. I had no idea that McCain was on the Forrestal for this event.2. Check out his location during the incident.If anybody in the Presidential race this time through has the credintials to take quick, decisive action, and handle the stress of the office it has to be this guy. You just have to trust that he surrounds himself with the folks that will give him good advice, and solid facts on which to make those decisions.

I really think that there is no substance to this guy. When he does begin to talk about issues, he waffles, and his ideas are very socialist