It’s Never Too Late

…for some Marine Corps Birthday porn! Found this masterpiece over at Mike the Marine’s place, via the always ahead-of-the-game Cassandra.

Imagine A World With No Guns

…Where we all can be victims

When Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan started shooting up the Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Pfc. Marquest Smith dove under a desk. A.P. reports that “he lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.”

Neither Smith nor the other victims of Hasan’s assault had guns because soldiers on military bases within the United States generally are not supposed to carry them. Last week’s shootings, which killed 13 people and wounded more than 30, demonstrated once again the folly of “gun-free zones,” which attract and assist people bent on mass murder instead of deterring them.

That these poor wonderful people were ordered to be defenseless just infuriates me to no end.

I Guess You Could Call This “Thank You for All You Do” Story

…“heartwarming”, in a twisted sort of way.

A Milwaukee Army reservist’s military identification earned him some street cred Tuesday, when he says four men who mugged him at gunpoint returned his belongings and thanked him for his service after finding the ID.

The 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student said he was walking home from work about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when he was pulled into an alley and told to lay face down and with a gun to his neck. Four men took his wallet, $16, keys, his cell phone and even a PowerBar wrapper from his pants pockets, he said.

But the hostile tone quickly changed when one of the robbers, whom the reservist presumed was the leader, saw an Army ID in the wallet. The robber told the others to return the items and they put most of his belongings on the ground next to him, including the wrapper, the reservist said.

“The guy continued to say throughout the situation that he respects what I do and at one point he actually thanked me and he actually apologized,” said the reservist, who asked not to be identified Tuesday because the robbers still had his keys.

Remember, Always

Thanks, Vets

For protecting and preserving everything we have and dream of.

Better Get That Olympic Torch There Soon

…Where the lovely Brazilian ladies will catch your eye,
by the light of the million stars in the evening sky…

Good thing they’ve got those million stars, as the lights went out last night

(CNN) — An important hydroelectric dam shared by Brazil and Paraguay failed Tuesday night, pushing a large swath of central and southern Brazil into darkness, said the country’s minister of mines and energy, Edison Lobao.

At about 10:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. ET), the Itaipu dam shut down completely, Lobao said in a radio interview.

Power began to slowly return Tuesday night, and authorities expected a restoration of power overnight, Lobao said.

…Rio’s main streets and avenues were in a total blackout. Video footage showed long lines of cars at a near standstill on the roads, and the subway system in Rio came to a stop.

Sao Paulo and Rio losing their traffic lights is not so bad, as those things are generally ignored anyway, but, tragically, things have taken a far more ominous turn

Questions remained about what happened and what the fallout would be in Brazil, a nation seen as an ascending economic and political power in the region.

“The image of Brazil, of Rio, is bad enough with all the violence,” said 35-year-old graphic designer Paulo Viera, as he sat in a restaurant a block from the sandy arc of Copacabana.

Drinking quickly warming beer, he said he worried about how the outage might look for a city that last month was picked to host the 2016 Olympics and will be the showcase city for soccer’s World Cup in 2014. “We don’t need this to happen. I don’t know how it could get worse.”

Good god, we need to send the Navy to assist these folks immediately.

What The Denver Balloon Boy…

was really practising for

About a year from now, if all goes well, a box about the size of a loaf of bread will pop out of a rocket some 500 miles above the Earth. There in the vacuum it will unfurl four triangular sails as shiny as moonlight and only barely more substantial. Then it will slowly rise on a sunbeam and move across the stars.

LightSail-1, as it is dubbed, will not make it to Neverland. At best the device will sail a few hours and gain a few miles in altitude. But those hours will mark a milestone for a dream that is almost as old as the rocket age itself, and as romantic: to navigate the cosmos on winds of starlight the way sailors for thousands of years have navigated the ocean on the winds of the Earth.

How very cool. This idea played a key part in one of my favorite science fiction novels growing up: “The Mote In God’s Eye”.

Good stuff.

(h/t Insta)

My United States Marine Corps is 234 Years Young Today

Happy Birthday and Semper Fi, Leathernecks!

Date Signed: 10/5/2009
ALMAR Active Number: 033/09

R 051329Z OCT 09
UNCLASSIFIED//
ALMAR 033/09
MSGID/GENADMIN/CMC WASHINGTON DC DMCS//
SUBJ/UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY MESSAGE – 10 NOVEMBER 2009//
GENTEXT/REMARKS/1. UNITED STATES MARINES REPRESENT THE BEST YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN OUR NATION HAS TO OFFER. TO BE A MARINE IS TO BE A MEMBER OF AMERICA’S WARRIOR CLASS – TO BE ONE OF THE FEW WHO STEPS FORWARD WITH THE COURAGE AND CONVICTION TO FACE WHATEVER DANGERS AWAIT. OUR NATION EXPECTS HER MARINES TO BE READY WHEN THE NATION CALLS; TO LEAVE FAMILY AND THE COMFORTS OF HOME BEHIND; TO MARCH INTO BATTLE AND THRIVE UNDER AUSTERITY; AND TO COME HOME UNDER A VICTORY PENNANT.

2. FROM AL ANBAR IN THE WEST OF IRAQ, TO HELMAND PROVINCE IN THE SOUTH OF AFGHANISTAN, OUR CORPS OF MARINES CAN ALWAYS EXPECT TO BE FOUND WHERE THE FIGHT IS TOUGHEST. SUCH IS OUR HISTORY. TODAY, AS WE WRITE THE FINAL CHAPTER ON OUR VICTORY IN IRAQ, WE WILL INCREASINGLY TAKE THE FIGHT TO THE ENEMY IN AFGHANISTAN AND ADD NEW PAGES TO OUR LEGACY IN PLACES CALLED DELARAM, NOW ZAD, AND GARMSIR. ONE DAY, WE WILL RETURN TO OUR NAVAL HERITAGE AND PATROL THE HIGH SEAS WITH OUR NAVY BROTHERS. SUCH IS OUR FUTURE.

3. AS WE CELEBRATE OUR CORPS’ 234TH BIRTHDAY, WE FIRST PAUSE TO REFLECT AND PAY TRIBUTE TO THOSE MARINES WHO HAVE GIVEN THE LAST FULL MEASURE IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM. WE EXTEND OUR DEEPEST GRATITUDE TO OUR MARINE CORPS FAMILIES – THE UNSUNG HEROES WHO ENDURE HARDSHIP AND SACRIFICE SO THAT WE ARE ABLE TO GO FORWARD AND ACCOMPLISH ANY MISSION. WE EXTEND OUR APPRECIATION TO OUR COUNTRYMEN WHO HAVE ANSWERED OUR EVERY NEED. AND WE CELEBRATE THE MAGNIFICENT MEN AND WOMEN WHO WILLINGLY AND SELFLESSLY CONTINUE TO GO INTO HARM’S WAY TO PROTECT THIS GREAT NATION.

4. TO ALL WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE, TO THOSE WHO WEAR THE UNIFORM TODAY, AND TO THE FAMILIES THAT GIVE US THE STRENGTH TO FORGE AHEAD – I WISH YOU ALL A HEARTFELT HAPPY 234TH BIRTHDAY!

5. SEMPER FIDELIS! JAMES T. CONWAY, GENERAL, U.S. MARINE CORPS, COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS//

Birthday Blogburst!!!

“We love death more then [sic] you love life!”

It seems Col. Hasan himself gave an honest appraisal of his thoughts

The Army psychiatrist believed to have killed 13 people at Fort Hood warned a roomful of senior Army physicians a year and a half ago that to avoid “adverse events,” the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors instead of fighting in wars against other Muslims.

As a senior-year psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program.

Instead, in late June 2007, he stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members and lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting in the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

“It’s getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims,” he said in the presentation.

…The title of Hasan’s PowerPoint presentation was “The Koranic World View As It Relates to Muslims in the U.S. Military.” It consisted of 50 slides. In one slide, Hasan described the presentation’s objectives as identifying “what the Koran inculcates in the minds of Muslims and the potential implications this may have for the U.S. military.”

He also sought to “describe the nature of the religious conflicts that Muslims” who serve in the U.S. military may have and to persuade the Army to identify these individuals.

Other slides delved into the history of Islam, its tenets, statistics about the number of Muslims in the military, and explanations of “offensive jihad,” or holy war.

…Under a slide titled “Comments,” he wrote: “If Muslim groups can convince Muslims that they are fighting for God against injustices of the ‘infidels’; ie: enemies of Islam, then Muslims can become a potent adversary ie: suicide bombing, etc.” [sic]

The last bullet point on that page reads simply: “We love death more then [sic] you love life!”

Under the “Conclusions” page, Hasan wrote that “Fighting to establish an Islamic State to please God, even by force, is condoned by the Islam,” and that “Muslim Soldiers should not serve in any capacity that renders them at risk to hurting/killing believers unjustly — will vary!”

All the Doctors who were present are currently under investigation by the Department of Defense for violating Hasan’s civil rights by listening to his presentation.

Quack

Quackquack quack quack quackquackquack

DUCK!!!!

Quackquack

To Sir Rob and Lady Patsy of Crabbe Lane, Appleton

You guys be careful, too, okay? This old girl will NOT quit!

Did You Know the GoDaddy Founder

…is a Marine?

USMC 234th Birthday Tribute!

All Class, All The Time

That’s the MO in the Obama White House

Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens’s election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”

I can’t imagine even Clinton using language like that.

“She knows what she’s doing with a pistol in her hand”

What better words can you say of a lady?

The two fired again, perhaps simultaneously, Medley said. Each was struck. The gunman took a bullet to the upper torso; Munley was hit in her legs and wrists. Both would survive and the carnage had ended.

“He went down,” Medley said. “She eliminated the threat. She did what she was trained to do.”

God bless her.

Good News

It’s Stephanie Abrams ~ NOT Jim Cantori ~ out on Pensacola Beach. WHEW!

Oh, and Ida wants to poop out some. That’s good, too.

(And no, Bingley ~ she’s not in shorts. Down boy.)

UPDATE: No doughnuts, but Entenmann’s crumb cake is nothing to sneer at. Already starting spitting and I’ve never been so cold with a tropical system coming in.

Barack O’Wonka?

Oompa-Loompas have taken over the White House.

Oh, Well

Shit.

Off to find some Lone Star mini powdered doughnuts first thing tomorrow morning.

Project Valour

Let’s step up to the plate, folks, for the greatest group of people on God’s Green Earth: Our soldiers.

If you are able, please give generously.

Huh. I Wonder What…

…this thing does

It probably is best not to fiddle with switches or controls when riding in the back seat of an air force plane.

A man who failed to obey that principle found himself hurtling out of the cockpit, smashing through the Perspex canopy and into space after grabbing the black- and yellow-striped handle between his legs. He had inadvertently pulled the eject lever and found himself blasted 100 metres into the sky on his rocket-powered seat.

I’m sensing a future winner of the Darwin Award in the making.

Well Slap My Ass And Call Me Shirley

Who could have possibly seen this coming

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned.

The very existence of the technology, known as a “two-point implosion” device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as “breathtaking” and has added urgency to the effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

…The agency has in the past treated such reports with scepticism, particularly after the Iraq war. But its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said the evidence of Iranian weaponisation “appears to have been derived from multiple sources over different periods of time, appears to be generally consistent, and is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed that it needs to be addressed by Iran”.

Extracts from the dossier have been published previously, but it was not previously known that it included documentation on such an advanced warhead. “It is breathtaking that Iran could be working on this sort of material,” said a European government adviser on nuclear issues.

James Acton, a British nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “It’s remarkable that, before perfecting step one, they are going straight to step four or five … To start with more sophisticated designs speaks of level of technical ambition that is surprising.”

No, it speaks of very deep pockets.

Oh, and the complete failure of will, vigilance and any semblance of realistic thinking by the Western World.

Fort Hood: As Cullen Says in the Comments

“How horrible”.

So true. And how horrible to have not one but TWO clowns at the highest levels in the land.

Obama’s Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting
A bad week for Democrats compounded by an awful moment for Barack Obama.

A “shout out” to a “Medal of Honor winner“? What a worthless dickweed tool this “smartest/classiest/onewe’vebeenwaitingfor Precedent EH-VAH” is. Dear Dr. Joe Medicine Crow been NOMINATED for the “Congressional GOLD MEDAL“, which is ~ I feel compelled to point out to our worthless dickweed tool of a President ~ VASTLY different from a “Congressional Medal of HONOR” (although both may, in fact, be GOLD, depending on the service) and been awarded the “PRESIDENTIAL Medal of Freedom”. I dunno. Maybe that’s where the confusion (and there’s a lot of it with this smartest bunch EH-VAH) came in.

So not only is his laissez faire attitude inexcusable in the face of this appalling tragedy, but my gut tells me that he threw that out in some half-assed attempt to be cool and connect with the military…when there was no connection at all, which you THINK the smartest, coolest guy in the world would have known. Or some of those smart, cool a$$holes he surrounds himself with.

My gut ALSO tells me, had the shooter been a white guy named Jethro pissed at Islamic members in uniform…we’d be looking at a solemn and righteous worthless dickweed tool of a President lecturing us all immediately on hate and race. Once he got done apologizing to CAIR, that is.

But that’s just my gut.

Which is churning at the moment.

Smartest Administration EH-VAH

…works some more stimulus magick.

Jobless Rate Jumps to 10.2% as Labor Market Still Weak

(You know, that Bush causes more trouble after more time…Can you imagine if he actually said something critical of the Obama administration? SCHWEET MARY MOTHER OF GOD! The Barockstar would ride it clean to 2016.)
And you can plan on adding almost 500 more folks to that roster come January from an surprising source…

Warren Buffett’s NetJets is putting 495 of its 3200 pilots on furlough effective January 15, as the Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary continues to cut back in the face of a slowdown in private corporate air travel.

Hope and change, baby. Everybody sing along, “It’s beginning to look a LOT like CHRISTmas! Everywhere I go…”

5:45 AM, 37 Degrees, Windy

And people are already lining up on the sidewalk along Broadway for the parade that doesn’t start until 11.

Insane.

All Our Thoughts and Prayers

…are with our brothers-in-arms and their families at Fort Hood.

You Know, I’m Really Gonna Miss…

Sen. Roland Burris

Sen. Burris Cites Unwritten Constitutional ‘Health’ Provision to Justify Forcing Americans to Buy Health Insurance
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
By Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter

(CNSNews.com) – when asked by CNSNews.com what specific part of the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals must purchase health insurance, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) pointed to the part of the Constitution that he says authorizes the federal government “to provide for the health, welfare and the defense of the country.” In fact, the word “health” appears nowhere in the Constitution.

“Well, that’s under certainly the laws of the–protect the health, welfare of the country,” said Burris. “That’s under the Constitution. We’re not even dealing with any constitutionality here. Should we move in that direction? What does the Constitution say? To provide for the health, welfare and the defense of the country.”

Seems he is a Constitutional Scholar on par with our President and Vice President.

(h/t Hot Air)