Thank you Mr. President for finally saying what needed to be said.
Baldilocks beat this drum two days ago once again proving that she’s erily tuned to Karl Rove’s brain.
Jeff Goldstein’s got a good take.
Whenever Veteran’s Day rolls around I think of this passage from Shakespeare’s Henry V:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
Years from now when my son is older and he asks what my response was to 9/11 I can breathe easy and simply tell him, “I didn’t retire as soon as I could have.”
Not much to some of you I’m sure, but it’s what I’ve got. I’m not and have never been hard core. It’s funny because people look at me sometimes or they find out I’m from Chicago and they assume that I’m tougher than I am, or meaner than I am, or…whatever and I’ve never thought of myself that way. When I was a kid I used to think that I had to try and be that way simply because I WAS from my school, or my neighborhood, or, after I joined the service, some of the small town folks simply assumed I was tough and mean because I was from “the city.”
But I’m like a lot of folks in uniform. I’m simply here and I’m doing my job. And some of the guys and gals that are deployed are the same way, just doing their jobs, not meaning to be heroic or hard core but finding that they are simply because they have the ability to continue to do their jobs when the shit hits the fan. I never would have considered my niece “hard core” until she survived an IED attack and then simply started to treat the people around her. I never would have considered an old friend from Germany hard core until I found out from his wife that he’d been shot six times and yet continued to shoot back at the fuckers shooting at “his” soldiers.
And where I’m going with this is simple. If you’re complaining about the state of the nation and you’re not contributing in some way to better it, please simply shut up. I can’t hear you. I don’t care if you simply try to treat people better in your day to day life. Contribute something positive else I find you a gentleman in England, now a-bed.
The Shape of Days’ Jeff Harrell is off hiatus and his blog has a bold new look. Kind of artsey and will prolly take forever to get through the firewall at work, but kinda cool. Besides, he hasn’t lost his edge.
Via Jay Tea.
What’s the most important story that’s currently in the news? Why?
Please go here and vote for us. Aaron is putting together a deck of blogger cards. Someone already voted for us and it wasn’t me, I swear.
Just helping to get the word out.
Publicity Stunt
Mkay… I dragged my drugged and temporarily one-handed body out of the hospital bed to tell ya’ll about something most important.
Carren is gonna be on national TV (and live national TV at that) to let everyone know about Project Valour-IT. She will represent me (the nerd who thought of this project), and the many people who have made this project a success.
She is going to be on “Connected coast to coast” a show run by MSNBC. Don’t know how long she’ll be on, but for the love of god, please tune in, put your hands on the top of your TV, and talk to Jebus when the show is over. The show runs from 1200-1300 (noon to one fer ya civlians out there)(and that’s eastern time) My beloved is supposed to be on around 1240, but I will rest assured that her looks, personality, and general charm will either get her on early, or the show will go into extra rounds like Rocky and the Big Ruskie in Rocky IV.
Here’s how you can help. Send this to every one you know, post it on your blog, get them to post it on theirs. One side will say it’s a failure of the gummint to not prvide this for the soldiers, others just see it as a way to help our brothers and sisters who have fallen but will be getting up. However they spin it, just get the word out.
There’s less than 18 hours to game time, so let’s get our blog on!
Via Blackfive.
When a musician submits a favorties playlist to iTunes and half the songs on it are by THAT musician. No, I want to know what you’re listening to, not what you’re selling. I think far less of Isaac Hayes than I did before.
Steel Curtain. I’m glad it’s going well. I have no doubt we’re kicking ass and taking names. However, I can’t help but feel like a Chicago cop who’s been told he can finally go after the mob guys after a year or two of watching them destroy a neighborhood. Why are we celebrating the fact that we finally did the right thing over on that border?
AFPC. Because I know they’re swamped and I know my life has made them busier the past few months, but I’d like to know what’s happening with the rest of my life.
College Math. They’re really going to make me take it to get my CCAF. Sigh. Shit. Well, once that’s done my Bachelor’s is only about 9 credits away…I know…you don’t have to say it.
France. Let me get this straight, they’ve treated their Muslim poplulation like second class citizens for at least a full generation and when these citizens, who were born there, riot at the fact that they can’t seem to find their way out of the welfare trap, the government offers MORE free crappy stuff? Do I have that right? First of all, send in the Army and stop the frelling rioting. Secondly, lose the system of free crap.
Must work out now.
Your peeves welcome in comments.
We finally got around to watching Donnie Darko yesterday. I bought it a long time ago based on bloggers’ referencing it and me going a bit nuts having no idea what they were talking about.
It’s weird, pretty, weird, disturbing, weird, good for the soul, weird, has a sweet late 80s soundtrack and weird.
I’m thinking you shouldn’t watch it immediately before or after Watership Down.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Nov 18.
Walk The Line. Currently under in limited release, everywhere Nov 18.
Rent. Nov 25.
Aeon Flux. Dec 2.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Dec 9.
Memoirs of a Geisha. Dec 9.
Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee’s “Gay Cowboy Movie” which is sure to win lots of Oscars because it’s a “Gay Cowboy Movie”). Dec 9. And ya know, I have no problem with gay people…I just think that “Gay” and “Cowboy” should never be uttered in the same breath. It’s just wrong. Call me old-fashioned. Think John Wayne kissing Charles Bronson. See? Inherent wrongness. Even gay men are cursing me right now, “Bitch, what are you thinkin’ putting that in my head?”
What am I missing? Which one are you most looking forward to? For me it’s a tossup between Aeon Flux and Narnia, both of which have a lot to live up to. We’ll go see Rent just becasue we want to see MORE musicals brought to the screen. Have musicals ever NOT made money?
Celtic Tiger, Qwest Center, Omaha NE.
Lord of The Dance meets Far and Away meets Yankee Doodle Dandy. And I mean all of that in the nicest possible way.
It’s Flatley. If you like him or your wife likes him or your kids like him, GO! I’m sure he’d say different, but sooner or later those feet have got to slow down and you’ll wish you’d seen him in his prime.
If you have any Irish in you at all and you miss this, you’re goin’ to be crying in your Guinness.
You could wait for the DVD, but this thing has got to be felt. You’ve got to get the rumble in your chest. You’ve got to feel the joy of the dancers wash over you, and make no mistake at all, the dancers and the musicians are having much more fun than we are. They LOVE what they’re doing and they love watching our jaws hit the floor as they do another round of tapping even faster than the last one.
Gregory Hines may have invented the idea of putting microphones in tap shoes, but Flately and company have made their shoes instruments to be reckoned with. Celtic, rock, jazz, country, show tunes, their shoes make percussion a primal force.
This show literally blew us away.
Makes a lad proud to be from Chicago.
Donald Sensing has a review of the movie Jarhead.
I haven’t read the book, but the lack of distinction between what’s live and what’s Memorex doesn’t help the movie, IMO. Perhaps as a retired Army officer I am at a disadvantage since I sat there mentally scoffing at some of the baloney. Example: sniper Swafford and his spotter, Troy, return at nighttime from a mission to find their entire unit blasting loud rock music in the night, whooping it up and dancing nearly naked around a huge bonfire of burning desert battle-dress uniforms. The four-day war had just ended and the Marines, including NCOs, are stripping their DBDUs and burning them. “Don’t need these no more! Ain’t never coming back!” one shouts. (Ah, the irony….) Then they all start firing their weapons on full automatic into the air.
Well, ‘scuse me, but that’s just crapola.
Go read the whole thing.
We’re going to be updating and making some changes as we transfer over to Pajamas Media. If we don’t have you blogrolled on the Links Page or if your link has changed, drop me a line or put something in the comments so we can fix that.
Don’t panic if we disappear entirely, that just means I’ve managed to melt things down and haven’t been able to wake up Stryker or Sparkey in the middle of the night.
Update: No major cosmetic changes will be made with the exception of the Pajamas Media ads taking hold. I’m mostly going to be updating links since some of them are so old they’re actually broken. I’m not sure if we’re ready for a face-lift yet…what say you all?
Looks like Smash and his Missus have started a new blog place.
…so why don’t you all tell me what you’ve been listening to lately. What’s tickling the ears? What’s putting the hitch in your giddyup (hat tip to Larry the Cable Guy)? What are you and yours using to get the bowm-chicka-bowm-bowm flowing?
29 October 2004 was my very first post here. The linkage it included has died so I’ll link back to A Brief Introduction. Wow…some things have changed a lot. Some things haven’t.
My legs now work. My lower back doesn’t want to and high blood pressure, the scourge of my family on both sides, has finally decided to settle in and stay. Meds are being taken and the headaches have been replaced with a spinning head when I work out. Me and the Doc are working on that. Although great for listening to Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd, dizzy spells are something I try to avoid these days. Being dizzy just doesn’t have the appeal it used to.
I still want to be a First Sergeant, but life happened a lot in the past year and that means that sometimes people you love and cherish die or get ready to die. That makes things hard. I didn’t want to be splitting my time between my family and my squadron. Not now. Not yet. I still have time. If it doesn’t happen I have no regrets over chosing my family first. I’ve watched guys pick their careers over their families. Not a one of them was ever happy about it. And I mean career, not duty. Duty is different and my family understands that which makes me a blessed man.
We thought we were going to Kadena next spring, then for Mt Home next month. Now we have no idea again. I’ve been here before, but I have to tell you, it’s starting to get old.
Life and death happens. One of my favorite books has a quote along the lines of, “If you truly believe in this spiritual life than you have to accept that dying is just as much a part of life as puberty…hopefully less dramatic.” That one makes me grin because it reminds me of that ol’ Marine Colonel I worked for, “You’ve got to have some vices otherwise God has to get creative when it’s time to take you home. Give Him something to work with otherwise he has to make things interesting. Nobody likes it when God makes death interesting. Tends to be dramatic.”
I need to thank some folks out there in this cartoon town of opinions we call The Blogisphere.
First of all the gang right here at The Daily Brief. Mom and the rest of you are just a barrel of laughs and a hoot and a holler all at once and it’s oodles of fun working with you. You do keep life interesting. Every now and then I wonder what the hell happened to Sparkey.
Stryker. My blogisphericalspiritual twin. Heh…that ought to make him gag for about a week…oh…wait…he has no gag reflex…he listens to Abba. Seriously though, thanks for the chats on Google and for letting me know, on occaission that I’m not as weird as I think I am…all the time.
And I could try to list all the people I read and try to draw material from, but there’s just too many.
Big thanks to the wingnuts on the far right and the moonbats on the far left for proving that sanity is a relative thing. Remember, as long as you guys are fighting, the terrorists are laughing.
So I’m kinda busy. Not happy. Trying not to injure in-laws emotionally or physically.
All I’m gonna say without going into details is Beautiful Wife’s family does NOT put the fun into dysfunctional…and they’re not even Irish so I have NO roadmap to follow whatsoever.
It’s sweeter when you’re from Chicago…even if it is the wrong side of town.
Jermaine Dye, Juan Uribe, may you never have to buy another beer for the rest of your lives.
Update: BTW, if you’ve grown up in Chicago, the White Sox winning the series has always been unlikely but it is NOT one of the signs of the apocolypse. That’s saved for the Cubs.
…if only because she realizes that we’d honestly be inteterested in The Professional Cheerleader Blog, and it doesn’t seem odd to her to let us know about it.
Beautiful Wife’s Father passed away yesterday afternoon. A Navy Chief Warrant Officer of 30+ years and always a gentleman.
We’re going to miss ya Bud.
May be the best show on network TV.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.
A gal holding a sign saying:
“Houston, YOU have a problem.“
I’m sorry, I have no idea if Tom Delay is guilty or innocent. Personally, I think he looks like a snake oil or used car salesman and I wouldn’t play cards wth him.
However, if you’re over 15 and people are still calling you “Ronnie,” then dude, you got issues no matter how many people you’ve indicted. It doesn’t make you “one of the boys,” it doesn’t make you “just plain folk,” it’s creepy. Grow up already.
Just sayin’…
With the holidays around the corner and Mom throwing down, I declare RECIPE WARS!
This is an easy one…I can make it and people love me for it.
—
Chess Cake
Preheat oven to 350
Mix together:
1 box Yellow cake mix
1 stick Butter (melted in microwave)
1 egg
Spread evenly into the bottom of greased 9×13 pan
Mix 1 box confectioners sugar (Yes the whole Pound)
Two eggs
1 8 oz package cream cheese (I cheat and buy pre-whipped)
Blend until smooth and creamy
Pour over cake mix
Bake 35-45 minutes (depends on pan type, keep an eye on it so it doesn’t overbrown, you want about an inch of golden goodness around the edges)
And now the hard part:
Let stand in pan overnight to set firm before cutting. Do NOT stick in the ‘fridge to speed it up, bad things happen. You may refridgerate after it sets.
Cut into 1 or 2 inch squares. Any bigger and you have to use a plate instead of your fingers and it’s WAY too rich anyway.
The Headmisstress has a list of good and bad detergents for camoflage uniforms that she received from her Cousin Joe.
They’re talking specifically about the latest and greatest material, but anyone who’s played with night vision goggles knows that some guys just glow in the dark and others don’t.
