muddysmind.com

Milestone

We did it, 5000+ comments now and still going strong.

That does not include the multitude that my filters deleted.

Happy surfing everyone.

Observation

Has anyone aside from Skywalker and myself noticed that the group screaming loudest for us to leave Iraq and for general "peace and love" are the ONLY group willing to physically assault people and throw things to get their way? Almost sounds like spoiled brats eh? I blame all those touchy feeley asshats in the 60's and 70's who said spanking children was evil so we have multiple generations now raised without discipline and running amok with no morals, self respect or honor.
Time to put the P (unishment) back in Parenting.

The Canadian Snowbirds

Yet another new pic for my deviantArt page, check it out here.

Kiki's Fire Part I

Leadership Traits

JJ DID TIE BUCKLE is an acronym every Marine knows. These days it is something I use to judge a person's leadership capability.

Here is the meaning:

Marine Corps Leadership Traits

Judgement
The ability to weigh facts and possible solutions on which to base sound decisions.

Justice
Giving reward and punishment according to merits of the case in question. The ability to administer a system of rewards and punishments impartially and consistently.

Dependability
The certainty of proper performance of duty.

Initiative
Taking action in the absence of orders.

Decisiveness
Ability to make decisions promptly and to announce them in clear, forceful manner.

Tact
The ability to deal with others without creating offense.

Integrity
Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principles; includes the qualities of truthfulness and honesty.

Endurance
The mental and physical stamina measured by the ability to withstand pain, fatigue, stress and hardship.

Bearing
Creating a favorable impression in carriage, appearence and personal conduct at all times.

Unselfishness
Avoidance of providing for one's own comfort and personal advancement at the expense of others.

Courage
The mental quality that recognizes fear of danger or criticism, but enables a man to proceed in the face of it with calmness and firmness.

Knowledge
Understanding of a science or an art. The range of one's information, including professional knowledge and an understanding of your Marines.

Loyalty
The quality of faithfulness to country, the Corps, the unit, to one's seniors, subordinates and peers.

Enthusiasm
The display of sincere interest and exuberance in the performance of dut

US soldier Claims Intelligence Encouraged Torture

I'll just come right out and say that him saying this to foreign reporters was highly inappropriate and reeks of "cover-my-ascot." I'll also say that what he did was not in anyway shape or form torture. Wrong? Yes. Abusive? Yes. Torture? Not in this lifetime. There is a stark difference between abuse and torture and this was simply not torture and anyone who thinks it is knows nothing about torture.

After saying this in the manner in which he did, any leniency he might have gotten for pleading guilty, could very well get thrown out the window. For one thing it strengthens the JAG office's case, it was also inappropriate and downright stupid.

I have friends who work in intelligence. One is overseas now. Maybe the Army does thing differently (any vets want to weigh in?) but Marine intelligence personel are trained not to do things like this. I highly doubt the Army is any different, so if this is true, then these were either very frustrated, or very undisciplined soldiers.

I also don't think humiliation is abuse. The Geneva Convention specifically states that humiliation is only wrong if it is done publicly. But the Geneva Convention also makes it so that these prisoners were all either not covered by the Geneva Convention, or eligible to be summarily executed.

Another issue is this guy says "Junior soldiers" had conflicting demands placed on them. First off, this guy is a staff non-comissioned officer in the United States Army. He is in no way a junior soldier. Second, as a soldier they should be trained to make quick and calculated descisions about how they do their jobs. If they were not, then their officer's and NCOs should all be held accountable for that.

This is without a doubt him trying to not take responsibility for his own actions. For that alone, I hope he is drummed out of the Army swiftly, and dishonorably.

Read the story at Yahoo!/AP

Just a thought

I have no problem with protestors....unless they disrupt normal city functions then i thnk they are out of line and should be arrested for disturbing the peace. Why? When they disrupt traffic and normal functions, then it costs otherwise innocent people time and money.

Boston: The city officials and DNC put protestors in a cage. That's sweet of them. Very few were arrested, they recieved basically no covereage.

Atlanta: The Libertarian National Convention recieved no protestors. Why? Probably because the media barely acknowledges the existence of 3rd parties.

New York: The protestors (like anywhere else) have to apply for demonstration permits. No big deal to me as it somewhat ensures that they do not disrupt the city. Some protestors are refusing to do this. Anarchists are planning violence. More of them have been arreested in the week before the convention for violent and disruptive behaviour than were arrested throughout the entire DNC. They have allr ecieved massive coverage for their causes thus far.

Boston & New York: Police investigate protestors prior to them actually protesting to attempt to prevent violence. I have no problem with this so long as they had credible information that the investigated people may commit violence. Otherwise, I say leave them alone.

My only prayer is that the anarchists do not turn NYC into the Seattle of the WTO summit. Sea Island during the G-8 summit, that would be much more tolerable (though I don't understand what the heck people were protesting for the G-8 summit.)

check your netstat log!!

Ok, I had a big scare today.
It seems my bit torrent days may be numbered.. I found someone had leached onto my box through one of my open ports for BT.
I could not shake them, what's worse they somehow were in as root!!
I lost it man. Put their ip addy in my deny list and rebooted, they are gone now but it's a little reminder how fragile network security is.

Linux users can run command as follows..

netstat -N-e

Some dude in the UK using Demon.net on a DSL line it seems.

btw... bit torrent tracker will be down until I lock this down better.

Greenspan Calling for Reduction in Social Security and Medicare

Today Alan Greenspan is confirming a prediction of mine: our shrinking workforce is about to create an odd problem.

Greenspan is saying that unless work is done quickly, social security and medicare is going to cause "abrupt and painful choices."

I agree.

Read the story atYahoo!/AP

As muddy can confirm, I predicted 3 weeks ago that the biggest economic problem facing my generation would be that we have to many jobs. Why? Because my generation is smaller than that of the baby-boomers. Which means less people working to support a growing economic burden of social security and medicare.

This is another reason I support the FairTax plan. First off, we'd pay taxes on imported goods, which we generally don't now - but we do on domestic goods as do other nations when importing our goods! Does this sound like a job creation mechanism to anyone else? The second thing is that our incomes would not dictate the government's budget. Also, tourists would be able to take up some of our budget by paying their share of our sales tax when they come here.

The other issue is we need to privatize both social security and medicare now! Let people invest their money. Put part of it in TSP. If you don't know what TSP is, it is a government employee/military investment plan and it ought to be what social security is going into as it yields anywhere from 3% to 15% annual interest through investments. Both cwilli and myself could problably answer a few questions about it (though probably me more than him) as he is retired military and I am current.

Simple fact is that we have a shrinking workforce which, thanks to government dependency is going to have to take on a larger economic burden.

If anyone would like to know why my generation is the first American generation to be smaller than the previous I can answer that too. Despite longer life expectency and less child hood disease my generation has had something no other generation before had: legalized abortion on demand. If you don't think that is why then you give me a better explanation.

Freedom of Speech

I'm sick and tired of the attacks on the so-called "527" groups. If they want to say something, that is their right under our constitution. McCain Feingold prevents certain people and groups from running ads mentioning the names of a candidate 60 day prior to an election. How the heck is that reforming campaign funding? That's what the bill supposedly did, but I don't see it.

It is all a huge attack on Free Speech and the ACLU should be up in arms about it. Especially since this is just just the type of speech the government wanted protected: political speech.

Okay, now back to your regularly scheduled aarguing, web browsing and whatever else the people who read this site do.

LTCOL North Speaks

LTCOL Oliver North, USMC (Ret.) has written an open letter to John Kerry. It is a good read to understand why many veterans do not want this man to be the commander of our armed forces.

Read it Here

FairTax

For those of you reading who do not know, our country spent a hundred years without an income tax. It was first tried during the civil war to help finance the war. It ended thereafter and was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the supreme court. Hence today we have the 16th amendment and for the past 90 or so years we've had to live with it. The founding father did not want any tax where the governmen takes money directly from indviduals. They wanted as little government in our lives as possible.

Read on.

Well the move has been afoot for awhile now t return to that. John Linder, a Republican representative from Georgia, has a bill called the FairTax Bill. Now he has alot ofDemocrats and Republicans who have signed on to this plan. Essentially it works this way:
The 16th amendment gets repealed, the act does not go into effect without this. A national retail sales tax is implemented. It would be an inclusive, 25% (approximately) tax. So, IOW, when you go to the store and pick up a magazine, the price says 4.05, you pay 4.05 + whatever local sales tax, just like you do now. The 25% is already in the price. Although, it would probably be beneficial for state government to change their sales taxes to be inclusive for uniformity sake.

No you can probably already see what is happening here: everyone has to pay taxes. If you consume (and everyone does) then you have to pay.

Now you may be asking, how can this possibly work? I mean hey poor people will have to pay! Well, there is actually a solution to that problem. In essence: if it is clothing or food, then you don't pay taxes up to a certain amount. Kind of like the sales tax holidays here in Georgia and down in Florida (by the way, on Georgia's sales tax holiday, sales tax revenue soars.)

I'm not going to go into to many more details, but if this plan were implemented, and you work 40 hours in a week and get paid 10 dollars an hour, then you would get $400 dollars. There would be no FICA to take money away, no Socialist ponzi schemes, no medicare taxes. All of that would be covered by the sales tax. Government spending? Goes down. IRS? Virtually eliminated, and what's left would have only 2 functions: collect money and mail a monthly check to people to refund them for food and clothing.

Imagine the money government will save just by eliminating IRS paperwork! Imagine the money corporations will save not having to implement new tax rules. Prices go down (albeit, not right away.) Profits will be up (more consumption occurring.) And one other thing: No one will be able to say the rich aren't paying their fair share. The poor won't even be paying taxes unless they're buying stuff they should be able to afford if they are poor anyhow.

This is an idea thatI signed onto during high school. There are no doubt flaws, but flaws can be fixed. Very few people think that our tax system is good, and the ones that do are socialists. This is a system that encourages economic growth instead of punishing it. Under the socialist income tax, you are punished with higher taxes if you succeed. With this, you pay taxes only if you really want to pay them. You don't have to buy a new 50" LCD DTV afterall. But you want one so if you can pay the $5k, you'll be paying a 25% tax in that $5k.

Our current system is dependent uponpeople having jobs. Well, this system is dependent upon people spending money, something that continues despite depressions or recessions.

Our current system taxes corporations. This system ill remove those taxes. This increasing profits. Competitive pressures will force the prices of goods down.

Our current system has high costs to maintain. This system has very little cost and is already used in most states so it will not increase conformance costs for most business.

I encourage you to read the website. I was on this band wagon long before John Linder had a House seat and before this organization or the bill existed.

FairTax

Linux Funnies

Found this jewl on the following site - http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/

I was calling to sign up with a new DSL provider. When the guy asked what operating system I was using, I said, "Linux." I was put on hold for five minutes, and then a supervisor came back and told me, "You can't use Linux to connect to the Internet. It's a hacker tool, anyway." I almost fell out of my chair.

Vote for Kerry or We'll Crap on ya!

Wow! Can you think of a more effective campaign weapon? "Vote for John Kerry or we'll dump human waste on you!" Geezz what will the republicans do to top this? "Vote for Bush or we'll not only dump human waste on you but also make you watch all of Kevin Costner's movies back to back." AAAHHHH!!! The Horror! :-P

Full Story @MTV.com

Breaking Point

I cannot express in mere words how sick, and very, very tired I am of this election, the election process, John "proud to be a war criminal" Kerry and George "I only care about rich folk" Bush. I want someone to make it all go away.

And If I hear one more news story about the damn Vietnam war I'm gonna loose my freaking mind!

This was the straw that broke my camel's back. (in case you care)

"Hours after Benjamin Ginsberg quit the Bush-Cheney campaign, Vietnam veteran and Kerry presidential campaign official Max Cleland showed up at the gates of Bush's retreat in Crawford, Texas, to demand the president stop his attacks on veterans."

Hello Cleland, *knock, knock* is anyone home in there!?! Bush is NOT attacking veterans, the swift boat fellows are attacking a "War Criminal"!! Kerry, if he represents ALL Veterans then your some sad, sad people.
Get over it, stop crying and I need your address so I can send you a clue because it's obvious your severely lacking any.

I must confess, the more this mindlessness carries on the more I realize my understanding of God's mercy and patience is so very, very minute.
It really makes me think He's the craziest one of us all, what were you thinking man? Going thirty years through the emotional stress and strain. The trials, the torture the beatings. Then to top it off you forgive the morons who killed you. I dare say your clinically insane.

*pause*

Maybe, just maybe those who we lock up as insane. Know you the best. ;-)

Church Says Girl's Communion Not Valid

BRIELLE, N.J. - An 8-year-old girl who suffers from a rare digestive disorder and cannot eat wheat has had her first Holy Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained no wheat, violating Roman Catholic doctrine.

Yahoo! News - Church Says Girl's Communion Not Valid

***I actually read this article a few days ago and ever since then have tried to arrange the words just right in my mind of how to draw out on paper of how utterly *ridiculous* this situation is. Here you have this girl who is suffering from a disorder that can easily be made worse by the traditional communion "standards" of her Roman Catholic Church and they're (the Roman Catholic Church) are more concerned about their senseless rhetoric and dogma than the health and well being of their followers. Not allowing her to substitute a simple wheat waffer for a rice one (or grape juice for an alcoholic) because it is - in their eyes - "invalid", is like telling me (and thousands of other Christians)...."Hey, since you got baptised in a baptistry behind a pulpit and *not* in an actual river then, your baptism is just not valid!". Give me a freakin' break!!! It is NOT the kind of waffer you eat nor the wine (or grape juice, for *that* matter) that you drink that makes a communion "valid" nor is it what God cares about but only the attitude of the heart that speaks the truth to Christ and in the end, *that* is what truely draws your spirit to His....****

Almost a loss for Words

I'm doing some work this morning and listening to the news. They were on discussing the Swift Boat Ads and had of course two lackeys one from the Elephants and one from the Donkeys. The reporter that was holding the discussion said that if Kerry was as upset with the swift boat ads why was he not upset with the moveon.org ads and the negative press coming from F911, the hilarious response from the democrat pundit was "well we're talking about truth vs. lies here" . Meaning that F911 was 100% truth and the swift boat ads were 100% lies.

BWWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

I think I about spit out my water I was drinking, omg that guy was one poor misguided fool.

New Overtime Rules

Today new rules from the federal government on who can and who can't recieve overtime goes into effect. I'm completely against it! Wonder why? Read on!

The Bush administration just continues to irk me when it comes to domestic policy. This is just the tip of the ice berg. I mean really, what business is it of the government's who gets and does not get overtime? Unless you are talking about government employees, I don't even see where they have the authority under the constitution to do this.

It's not interstate commerce by any stretch of the imagination, and that's the closest to having constitutional authority that I can find.

This is another example of the government saying: you're not capable of running your own life, so we are going to do it for you. And why not? We only ask them to do it on ar egular basis.

An employer and employee should be able to come to an agreement on what they will be paid and the circumstances surrounding it and that goes for minimum wage also. Sorry, but I spent alot of time working the stereotypical "minimum wage" job and I never met anyone who actually made minimum wage there who was over the age of 17. My girlfriend and my little sister are in that boat now and they both make over minimum wage and my sister is 16. They get overtime when they work more than 40 hours. Period. What is so complex about that, that the government has to regulate it?!

Under these new rules, I have friends who were making $35k a year if they worked 5 hrs overtime a week minimum. They won't qualify for overtime now and they are their families' sole incomes.

It is time to tell the government to get out of our bedrooms, pocketbooks and workplaces. And neither Kerry nor Bush want to do that.

France thanks WWII Allies

President Jacques Chirac, hosting the function aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, expressed his country's "infinite gratitude" to the nations who took part in the August 15, 1944 assault.


Full Story @ Channelnewsasia.com

Just A Question

Who would you rather have your photo taken with? The woman who won the Olympic Marathon or the woman who knew she was to be the last to finish, but kept running to the finish line anyways?

Who would your ather have your photo with? The Iraqi soccer team which doesn't care that they no longer live under a dictator and would be in Athens either way, or the Afghan woman who finish who sprint heat 3 seconds behind the person who finished ahead of her but who didn't care what she placed because she had never had a chance to compete before?

How about the woman who medalled in judo, or the Afghan woman whose olympic experience ended in 42 seconds as she lost her judo match?

On a side note, why are countries like greece allowed to have teams which are mostly non-Grecian?! Most of their baseball team is American college students!

Please keep politics out of the discussion.

M$ funds "Independant" Study, Determines they are Cheaper than Free?

Ok, I read this and said to myself, this is too stupid to pass up. M$ (aka. Microsoft Corp.) funds an "independent" study to determine what OS (operating system, that stuff your computer needs to work) would best suit Newham's (London, UK) needs. The bold face lie they came up with "Microsoft is more secure than the open source alternative" was far to much for me to take. Seeing as how a problem found in OSS (open source software or Linux, FreeBSD etc..) gets fixed in a few days, M$ takes months if not years to fix simple problems. Oh man this is sure some secure crap there fellas, I wanna smack someone over this. Give me a round trip to England kids. I just want to grab those responsible for making decisions and say "Have you lost your bloody mind!?!"
Ok, I'm done ranting. Thanks.

Full Story @The Register

Blood, sweat and cheers: Let freedom ring

I almost got teary eyed reading this, of course Kerry and Bush will find some way to politicize this.
Finally someone is willing to stand up to the liberal media and share good news about Iraqi progress.
Whoopin' up on Portugal 4-2 the Iraqi soccer team shocked the soccer wold, even after scoring an own-goal.. doh! Well that just goes to show you the amazing spirit of sportsmanship the Iraqi's have. Winning a game without a fight was not good enough so they gave Portugal a point. ;-)

A MUST Read @ ESPN.com

If your chased by a Bear, Buy a Beer!

"We noticed a bear sleeping on the common lawn and wondered what was going on until we discovered that there were a lot of beer cans lying around," said Lisa Broxson, a worker at the Baker Lake Resort, 80 miles (129 km) northeast of Seattle.

Full Story @Reuters

It seems Lance was right

At the end of the Tour de France Lance told the inquiring minds that he would not be in the Olympics. Many were upset that he was not going to be there, his reason now seems very solid. After giving yourself to the Tour de France, your spent, no way was he going to be able to put forth a solid performance. So his fellow Americans have also learned.

Full Story @ ESPN.com

I'm so stressed, can we cuddle?

Hahaha.. just when I thought I had heard it all. Now those trendy New Yorkers are all cuddling and showing just how sensitive they are.

[sarcasm]Awwww... how cute.[/sarcasm]

Give me a break man, this is nothing but a front for perverts and freaks. Nobody in their right mind would lay down and "cuddle" with a bunch of unknown people.
It's quite funny though.
Read the story if you would like a laugh. I almost came to tears reading it myself.

Full Story @ Sky News

Reservists Deal Unsuccesfully With Civilian Employers

One of the unfortunate thngs about using reservists so heavily is that they have a hard time with employers once they return. This despite a law requiring they be returned to their old position or an equivelant one, and recieve retroactive raises and bonuses as if they had never left.

The article mainly deals with reservists who are coming back from war, but I can tell you that just being a reservist makes it difficult to get a position. After spending most of a year on active duty, I've found it very difficult to even get a call back despite my being qualified or in some cases, over qualified for positions I've applied for. I've beent old it is because it is well known locally that I'm in a deployed/deploying unit and I am high risk for deployment. Luckily for me, I'm a college student and need only a small part time job, so I just took something lower paying.

Read the article at Yahoo!/AP

Who is at fault? Well, employers for being jerks tops my list. The Bush administration for taking us to war (though I agreed with that decision.) Me for choosing this path. Finally, the terrorists whose actions lead us to this.

Not much can be done about it. There are already laws against it. To not hire me is discrimination. To not allow me to return to my job violates a specific law.

Am I angry? A little. Am I annoyed? A little. I just remind myself that part of freedom is that we some times get screwed by people. We could go live in countries where they point a gun to your head and tell the business they have to hire reservists, but that's not freedom is it?

Why I stopped Watching CNN

click image to enlarge

IBM Adding New Jobs

As we know, the tech industry has really been hurting. Well, it looks like better days are on the horizon! IBM is adding 18,800 jobs world wide, and about a third of those are in the US (considering how many offices IBM has, that's huge!) This is also new jobs, not just replacements for people leaving the company.

This is also good news for corporate confidence which has been very low despite consumer confidence being at all-time highs, a reason which many economists beleive is slowing down job creation.

Full Story @ The Street

New Ammo for Liberals

Upon seeing this headline "800,000 Floridians Urged to Flee Charley" today, I pondered.
How will the liberals link this to Bush?, Oh I'm on the edge of my seat waiting on this one.
Liberals, "It's obvious that Mr. Bush has used secret government technology to cause this hurricane to interrupt John Kerry's campaigning and sway the vote."

*muddy chuckles to himself*

Those Nutty libs.

Moore Defends Fake Headline

Looks like Michael Moore's distortions are coming home to roost. Seems he faked a newpaper headline with a letter to the editor. Didn't even use the original date.

Read the story at Yahoo!/AP

Carlyle Group : An Enigma Immersed In Suspicion

I have been given an opportunity to do some reading these past few days. After this week I fully understand and realize no matter what happens this November. We're screwed.

We either get Mr. Backboneless Kerry King of Flip-Flops or Sir One Step Forward Two Steps Back Bush.

*Sigh*

The article I just wrapped up reading did not help me either. It only raised more questions that were lingering in the back of my mind. Thanks.

I knew from other articles and such that Halibrton was a shady kind of company, that I did not trust as far as I could throw them. Now the Carlyle Group (which I have heard of but knew little about) makes me think Haliburton may not be so bad.

As Dan Briody states clearly in this interview that this is a Capitalist society and it's ok for people to use their experience and such to make money. I'm all for making money. However there does have to be a line, and it looks like Caryle may have not only crossed it but picked it up and folded it neatly and tucked it away. Only those involved can truly set the record straight, so we'll more than likely never know.

Story @ Guerrilla News Network

New Pic!

New art pic has been posted up on deviantArt.

deviantART: Oh Happy Day by ~muddysmind

Canada calls out Kerry

I thought this was interesting how other countries take such an interest in the politics of the U.S. when so many in our own country do not.

Full Story @ TheStar.comt

Ireland Is Lost Island of Atlantis, Says Scientist

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.

Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 BC, was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves.

Full Story @ Yahoo! News

Halle Berry's Stunt Double is a ... Man

I don't normally post Hollywood crap here, however this was too funny to pass up. I can see all the men in the movie theater watching this drooling and all of a sudden... "was that a lump in her pants during that backflip???"

bwwwahahahaha...

So is it 'Catwoman' or 'Catman'?

IT'S HARD to imagine how a man could be mistaken for Halle Berry (even a hot man with great skin and breasts) but that seems to be the case in "Catwoman."

"I had a man as my stunt double in 'Catwoman,' " Berry told Tattle's Baird Jones at the movie's premiere party at chic NYC retailer Bendel's. "He wore the 'Catwoman' costume and he looks like me. You can't tell the difference the way they shot it."

That guy must have serious issues. So why was he needed?

"He had to climb up a wall and then do a backward flip. None of the girls could do it, so the director had to bring in a guy. His name was Nito. He was Hawaiian. He is 29 years old. Obviously they had to enhance certain areas of his body. They had to put in a little support, pad it up a little up here and there. We all gave him a really hard time, we just fell out. He had red lipstick on and all this makeup, it was hysterical. Then they had to shave his whole body.

"Nito kept saying, 'I am so glad I am not a woman,' because he got waxed. They pulled the hair right out. We women have to do that all the time but he had never done that and it really hurt. Nito had a lot more respect for us at the end of the day after getting waxed."

So Nito, did you go Brazilian?

Learn about the White House

During my endless surfing session tonight I came across some informative and interesting spots on the whitehouse.gov web site.

First is the White House Interactive site that allows every day Joe's like us ask those in the know questions whether silly or serious.
White House Interactive

Next is a spot to sign up for emails letting you know what the President and his Cabinet are doing so you can keep up to date on what the [sarcasm] evil empire [/sarcasm] is up to.
White House E-Mail Updates

Last is a very cool set of videos that give you a tour of the White House without fighting D.C. traffic.
Life in the White House Videos

“Iraqis Want Us There”

U.S. Army commander says unbalanced news threatens troop morale.

On the night of April 6, 2003, Lt. Col. Stephen M. Twitty called his subordinate commanders together a few miles south of Baghdad. "Guys, this is it," the black 39-year-old from Chesnee, South Carolina told his officers. "We're going to take the fight into Baghdad. Some of us in this room may die, and that's okay. Just know it's for a good cause." He then offered up a short prayer and dismissed his commanders.

The following morning, Twitty's unit, Task Force 3-15 (3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment) of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division began an epic eight-hour struggle to race up the primary highway into Baghdad, seize and hold three key intersections along the way, and then keep the road open for follow-on American forces.

Full Story @ National Rveiew Online

Linux vs. Mac on the desktop

Looks like Linux is moving up the charts, in 5-10 years Windoze will be a distant memory, yea!

Full Story @ Infoworld

New Wallpapers! Bubbles for Everyone

I have two new wallpapers up, on my deviant art page.

Check them out and let me know what you think.

General Tommy Franks Interview

I found this piece and thought it was very interesting reading.

Here is a small sample.

* The biggest surprise for him was that they've found no weapons of mass
destruction (WMD), the "reason we went to war." He says multiple
Middle Eastern leaders, including Jordan's King Abdullah and Egypt's
Hosni Mubarak, told Franks that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
In January 2003, Mubarak said point blank to Franks, "Saddam has
WMD-biologicals, actually-and he will use them on your troops."

Story @ prnewswire.com

DEM'S MARINE MISFIRE

I'm shocked and outraged, John Kerry our most renowned war hero (according to him only) was in a Wendy's on Friday, he saw a small group of fellow military men and went to greet them and was not loved at all.
In fact, one Marine said he was 100% against him... how could that be?? I have been told time and time again that EVERYONE loves Kerry and he's going to win by a landslide. It must be a right wing lie that Kerry would not be loved by his brothers in the military.
I blame Bush (as all liberals do when things don't go their way) for all this mess. People not throwing themselves down at the feet of our saviour John "not bush" Kerry.
A man who is going to give everyone in America healthcare (socialism) and at the same time lower our healthcare costs (yet somehow I imagine the fat cat healthcare companies will get richer) how would he not be elected now and just get it over with.

Shocking really.

Story @ New York Post Online Edition