Making tomorrows Military today: April 2005

Militantpundit posted @ 10:54 PM

One of the best stories in years

There is a bit of Canadian Anti-Military Bias, but this story made me feel very lucky to be alive and in one piece.

Update: The militantwife says that there is no anti-military bias to the article. The thought behind calling it antimilitary was a line that the author said...

after the guy was injured.... she asks him why he did not commit suicide. Hell he just lived through D-Day and she is wanting him to talk about why he did not kill himself. That is completely idiotic if you ask me.

Militantpundit posted @ 10:00 PM

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Thursday, April 28, 2005

Little doctor visit today

Wow. I went the doctor today. I have a Greek surgeon that I was referred to by my normal doctor for a hernia repair. I get there, and he tells me that I not only have one hernia that I knew of, had repaired once and has ruptured again, but now I have another one on the other side that needs to be repaired also.

So, two weeks from now I will be laid up in my bed with the little bell. I am going to hate being home and not being able to do any work around the house. I will sorely miss my yardwork.

I am back to work tomorrow. Tomorrow is Mission Day, so I will be pretty happy that I missed all of the stress this month. I will give you all of the juicy details tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Militantpundit posted @ 9:00 PM

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Touchy subject

No pun intended...

Gay folks in the military again. I am going to take a page from Gun-Toting Liberal. I am going to tell it like it is: no bull. If you don't like it, wait your 30 seconds and click away.

This is wrong on so many levels. I hate being lumped into the "MTV" Generation. According to this article (at least it is an opinion piece) we MTV'ers should just love the thought of a gay man serving next to us. Here is my problem with this. Young people are supposedly more liberal than the older folks in the world. That may be more because when you are young, you are supposed to want everything given to you, as in a socialist world... because your childhood usually is a socialist world. So now, at 17-20 yrs old, you decide to join the military, and usually your thoughts change. You learn that people that want everything given to them are just plain whiners. So military people are usually more conservative, unless they are the "bad" people/ workers that EVERY ONE of us has had in our division, platoon, etc, etc.

In the dirt of a desert, dark of a submarine, cheek to cheek in a C-130 or whatever... it is not a good idea to have someone who is looking at you as a sexual object (ask a woman in the service) instead of a brother that would give his life for you. I cannot feel any more strongly about a particular issue. I heard a story once about the first woman that threw a big fit about not being allowed on a submarine. It was not about wanting to serve on a submarine, it was about wanting to break the sub force. That is all the gays in the military crap is. It is the Gay Generation (that is what I am calling this time in our life) wanting to break the military. As soon as a gay man gets into the military, he will cut and run as soon as he gets called up to go to the big sandbox.

My last point comes from this article, and the other article above. It deals with the defense language school. I think that the reason we are losing alot of people from the defense language school is because liberal language arts people are closer to homosexual ideals than say, a diesel mechanic in the army or navy. It really makes me mad when the media, politicians and others do not look at the whole picture. If you look at the whole picture, you will see that males that are more feminine will be in the language world, vice the engineering and hands on workforce. How many homosexual car mechanics do you know? I didn't think that many.

Any thoughts? All opinions will be listened to...

Militantpundit posted @ 1:00 PM

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

freak hail storm

Almost finished with the yard. Today I was adding more topsoil to the front yard before seeding it. Well, I was alomst finished.... and then got pelted by hail! I had my car out in the driveway, windows down, Roe Conn talking (download the Rubber Song from the site and Baby Mama from Fantasia Barrino (last year's american idol) and you will laugh your ass off!), me listening more than working. The inside of the car was all wet, all of the extra 50 bricks we picked up today... all soaked... all the dirt... now weighing twice the weight as before.

Nothing terribly exciting happened to me today. I am ready to get the yard finished and the wife off the back.

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary for us. We decided to go cheap this year since we have spent so much cash on the yard. We went to a local restaurant that offers 2 dinners for 10.99 with a mail out coupon. We have not paid full price for too much in the last few months. I tend to watch SlickDeals.net to see what is for sale, or on sale, or especially things that are mispriced.

I bought the militantwife a set of irons (golf clubs, not the household appliance) for cheap on eBay. She wants to get started golfing so we can spend more time together. I suck at golf, but I would love to have her come with me on the weekends.

Modern Marvels is on the History Channel featuring Bunkers. NORAD has been featured and one cool one that I thought would be cool: the Titan Missile Museum. It is in Green Valley, AZ. If I am ever out there, I think that I will head that way.

Wow... random thoughts post. I guess this can be the random comments thread too.

Militantpundit posted @ 10:04 PM

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Monday, April 25, 2005

Marvin Windows!

Forever now my favorite window company. Clicking away on Blog Explosion (welcome 30 second Viewers!) I hear tires screeching on the TV. Lucky for me, TiVo has become my best friend. I rewind the commercial to see an 2001-pres BMW M3 (very similar to my car, just bigger engine) and a 300M chasing each other in the city streets blasting all the side street vendors. The M is fishtailing side to side and The Marvin window folks come into view. The M rails on the brakes, stops on a dime, with the shot just wide enough to see the M3 gills on the side. The window guys move it out of the way, and off it goes again!

Man-gasm.

I miss autocrossing. Anyone else a parking lot racer?

Militantpundit posted @ 10:47 PM

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Saturday, April 23, 2005

Is there a such thing as a good haircut anymore?

Weekend update! I bought the militantwife a gift certificate to the local hair cutting place/spa. She and her friend went there today and were NOT satisfied. Far from it actually. Her friend had highlights done, and all that was done was her pocketbook got lighter. Her hair looks exactly the same. The wife got the highlights as well. Hers turned out well, but they cost my wallet 111.00. Yes one hundred eleven bucks. The reason it was so expensive is that I took her to the gal that normally cuts my hair, and that woman just butchered the MW's hair.

So the question is: Where do your ladies go to get their hair done? Mine is simple. 2 on the sides, take off the same on the top that you did on the side. Women are different

It is finally drying out here from the torrents of rain we had over the last few days. Yard work back on!

Took out the clubs today and got in 9 holes. Oh speaking of the devil, are any of you looking for Sporting Goods equipment? If so, go to the sports authority website and you can get 25% off of your purchase. That is right! 25% off. Just type in TSAFRIENDS (all caps, one word) for the discount. Plus, if you live in IL, they don't charge state tax! Try that one on for size. Hope you can come up with something to buy. Think of me when you are making your purchase.

Hope everyone enjoys your weekends!

Militantpundit posted @ 8:01 PM

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Thursday, April 21, 2005

Loonies back at it again

Today I was out working in the yard. I am on vacation until next weekend. I tilled up my yard, bought about 200 stones to do some landscaping with, on and on. The militantwife came out and said... "What is the oath of enlistment?" I tell her (you guys can find it here). I ask why. She tells me that it is something I will want to blog about tonight.

So I finish working in the yard, come in and sit down to this article. The first thing that I notice is that Hanoi Jane's hubby is at it again. Thomas Hayden is one of those Liberal "minds" from way back. He is using his "clout" as an ex- California State Senator to drum up support for this PENNSYLVANIA woman whose son was killed in Iraq.

That would be all fine and dandy, if she wanted like a city street named for him. But what does she want... She wants Canada to take in Deserters from the US Military as "Refugees". To save you from going to a Canadian Government site, here is what they call a refugee:

Through its refugee protection system, Canada offers safe haven to persons with a well-founded fear of persecution, as well as those at risk of torture or cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. Canadas refugee protection system consists of two main components:

The Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program, for people seeking protection from outside Canada; and
The In-Canada Refugee Protection Process, for persons making refugee protection claims from within Canada.

Some of you are saying "well... He would be prosecuted for desertion when he comes back right?" Damn right and let me be on the Court Martial jury. In 1951, the Geneva Conventions specifically went over refugees. (PDF file)My favorite part is this. (pg 16 of 56)

A. For the purposes of the present Convention, the term refugee shall apply to any person who:

(1) Has been considered a refugee under the Arrangements of 12 May 1926 and 30 June 1928 or under the Conventions of 28 October 1933 and 10 February 1938, the Protocol of 14 September 1939 or the Constitution of the International Refugee Organization; Decisions of non-eligibility taken by the International Refugee Organization during the period of its activities shall not prevent the status of refugee being accorded to persons who fulfill the conditions of paragraph 2 of this section;

(2) As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

In the case of a person who has more than one nationality, the term the country of his nationality shall mean each of the countries of which he is a national, and a person shall not be
deemed to be lacking the protection of the country of his nationality if, without any valid reason based on well-founded fear, he has not availed himself of the protection of one of the countries
of which he is a national.

From webster.com

One entry found for persecute.

Main Entry: per·se·cute
Pronunciation: 'p&r-si-"kyüt
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -cut·ed; -cut·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French persecuter, back-formation from persecuteur persecutor, from Late Latin persecutor, from persequi to persecute, from Latin, to pursue, from per- through + sequi to follow -- more at SUE
1 : to harass in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict; specifically : to cause to suffer because of belief
2 : to annoy with persistent or urgent approaches (as attacks, pleas, or importunities) : PESTER

Also from webster:

One entry found for prosecute.

Main Entry: pros·e·cute
Pronunciation: 'prä-si-"kyüt
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -cut·ed; -cut·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin prosecutus, past participle of prosequi to pursue -- more at PURSUE
transitive senses
1 : to follow to the end : pursue until finished prosecute the war with... vigor -- Marjory S. Douglas>
2 : to engage in : PERFORM
3 a : to bring legal action against for redress or punishment of a crime or violation of law <prosecuted them for fraud> b : to institute legal proceedings with reference to <prosecute a claim>
intransitive senses : to institute and carry on a legal suit or prosecution

Hmmmmmm..... Oprah... Uma... Persecute... Prosecute...

You decide. I can see that the Canadian Government is laughing all the way to the bank, assuming they flew Air Canada to Ottawa.

Lets examine some of the statements by the woman.... since I am feeling cheery tonight.

A teacher, disc jockey and musician when he enlisted, Baker never thought he'd be called up for overseas duty with U.S. military forces, she said. The National Guard, he assumed, was for natural disasters and the like. "Recruiters are very persuasive - always promising college support and extra money," she said.

What a dipstick. This guy was my age. I am damn certain that he thought he would never have to go to war if he went into the ARNG. None of us who graduated in the 1994-2000 time frame EVER thought we would see a war, much less a ground war with Iraq... again! Politics aside, we never thought it. Slick Willy was all about Cruise Missiles and Predator unmanned aircraft. The Navy and AF were going to walk away with the pie and leave all of the groundpounders in the dust. Well, we were, we did and in 2001, Don Rumsfeld had a plan for restructuring the military to be a mobile fighting force that could be deployed in small groups anywhere in the world at a moments notice instead of what we have now. Well, shit happens and the muck got deep. Here we are, the National Guard is called up, the reserves are called up, the groundpounders are hurting, wanting people to join and paying out the nose to get them. Damn right we are persuasive. That is our freaking job. We are Salesmen for goodness sakes.I have to be better than the next guy. That is all we have. So, this guy was in the NG, re-enlisted (probably in 2001, if my math is right) and went to fight. He did it on his own accord. By a couple of accounts, he did it because he needed a supplemental income or college loan payback (which is 65 grand folks, come sign up!) which ever one makes him sound more pitiful. From the common dreams link above:

When Baker's unit was activated for Iraq, he didn't want to go, Celeste said. But he was honor-bound by his sense of responsibility - to the men in his unit and to the commitment he'd made when he joined.

"I said, 'Should I take you to Canada?' " said Celeste, recalling her Vietnam-era experience of helping military defectors escape the country.

"He said, 'No, I'll just be court-martialed. I'm going to go do this and come home.' "

My kind of guy. Mom is a wingnut that wants him to ruin his life by deserting. He said no, I am going to do my job and be ok. He left. Hell it is pointed out many times that he was the FIRST PA-NG soldier to be killed. Poor guy. It sucks, but he is in a very small minority that come home to be honored as fallen heroes. This guy gave his life for more than just "Bush's war". Give this guy a little respect. Hey Celeste Listen to this: Let your son rest in peace, defending his country and his people he loved as family. He did not want to be your political springboard. You can see that in his actions. Your other moonbats you raised, got arrested for protesting the war as far away from PA as they could (San Francisco).

Ok. In my job, there is a policy in place that says that I cannot run for public office, participate in any political party affiliations, while in an official status. There has to be a similar thing for Philadelphia city workers. Oh wait... Philadelphia... the liberal hippy douche capital of the east coast. Anyway, if you want to contact Celeste, here is her phone number at work. I am sure she will not be happy if you call her and offer condolences. She will probably tell you that her son died in vain.

Militantpundit posted @ 10:20 PM

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Friday, April 15, 2005

Weekend Update

Whew. The "weekend". Even though I am working tomorrow for about 2 hours, it is still the weekend, and my vacation starts next Tuesday morning.

I would like to pass on a word of thanks to Guy@ Snugg Harbor for the kind words about me on his site. It is aways nice to see other veterans sticking together and trying to help the causes that we all seem to have the same ideas on.

This weekend is going to be a landscaping adventure. I had a very bad real estate agent and I was in a very bad position when I bought the house that I now call home. My agent did not really explain the avenues that I had when the house was extremely late being finished. It turns out that the developer was actually his boss at the real estate agency. So he forgot to tell me that I could pull out of the home buying process. So I lived in a hotel with the militant wife, our dog and 4 birds. (Imagine getting a hotel to agree on that one). So living in a hotel, starting work, house late, but livable, just not finished. So we moved in. Oops. They forgot to come back and finish this damn godforsaken place! And the lawn was not even graded. So, a year and a half later, we are finally getting around to tilling the yard up, grading the yard, and getting rid of the crabgrass from hell.

Anyone want to loan me a 10ft+ ladder so I can fix my roof this coming week?

No F1 this week. Looks like I will be hitting the links on Sunday!

Militantpundit posted @ 10:29 PM

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Monday, April 04, 2005

Sucks

The Illini Lost. Looks like we should have brought the Chief.

Militantpundit posted @ 10:26 PM

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Oh Boy... here we go again

Algore has finally gotten his hands on a broadcast company. I think I am going to find a special corner in the room for Algore.

First off, the AP says...

The former vice president and longtime Internet champion

I cannot believe that they said "internet champion". We all know he invented the internet, but I would not put him into the Champion category any further than myself.

Wow... this one I have a phrase for you:

Central to their strategy is inviting Current's viewers to supply their own video content and helping them produce it using editing tools that Current will make available on its Web site.

High school news. Do any of you have a high school journalism class that broadcasts a "news show" from the school? That is edited by freaking failed journalists (those who cannot: teach) and fat kids who cannot get dates. Is that the target audience for this show?

Now we know Gore has lost complete touch with reality:

"The $100,000 television camera has become a $3,000 high-definition camera, and the $250,000 editing console has become a $1,000 Apple computer program," Gore said

Come on Al, no one uses Apple. Apple is another one of those esoteric OS's that attract the kids that do not fit in. (fat kids who cannot get dates... maybe... hmmmm...pattern developing?)

Last point. Come on Al... we see through the crap with this comment.

Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, has publicly complained about the number of conservative voices dominating the airwaves.

Yet he insisted that Current will have no political agenda.

We know that you love Air America and you are wanting a piece of the pie, but this is better. You can indoctrinate the youth (which is your target audience... no?) all the while telling them that you just care abotu them and their future! Liars and the lying liars that tell them. Ask that asshat that put that on the front of his book.

Militantpundit posted @ 8:18 PM

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