Thanks to all of you for making TAH a part of your days throughout the last year. Thanks for your great comments and all of those clicks you made on our ads. Thanks to all of the bloggers who’ve linked to us.
Thanks to all of the phonies who make this job so easy. Thanks to Joe Bite Me for being such a fool. Thanks to Gordon Duff for being a lunatic. Thanks to VoteVets for being so transparently partisan. Thanks to the trolls who drive the traffic.
Thanks to the stable of great co-bloggers who cover for me on my frequent trips to DC. Thanks for all of your tips when I’m too lazy to look for stuff to write about.
Thanks to everyone who makes this the best job I’ve ever had. May your 2012 be as satisfying for you as I expect mine to be. See you next year.
Happy New Year everyone! Please be safe, and here’s hoping that 2012 is better no matter how good or bad 2011 was!
Thanks to you too, Jonn.
TAH is a daily stop for me, and I know full well how much effort and dedication it takes to run a place like this. It’s especially impressive when TAH consistently puts out top-quality posts, and says the things that the legacy media refuses to address.
May everyone have a wonderful and profitable New Year.
And keep your head on a swivel, especially tonight. 🙂
Cheers!
Thank you – same to you and yours – cheers!
One bottle, one glass. Seems oddly familiar.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year!!!
My oldest son survived his second tour of the Stan this year, and an IED attack. The youngest survived an asshole that tried to kill him, and returned the favor, with far better results. I’m able to type this, so, all in all, a good year.
And, thanks for this place. Like Tim said, a daily stop for me.
Thanks Jonn, for the class that this site is. And thanks to you all for the stops y’all have made at my online shop, where I vend my art, to help finance my troop support effort which is the single most gratifying thing that I have done with my retired life. 2011 was a great year for me and,in part because of the readers here.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, AMERICA
Happy 2012 to all!
Hey its time for a “Dear Jonn” letter…..Dear Jonn; Thank you for being you. Don’t ever stop my brother. I am very proud to have been able to meet and stand down the anti-war punks with you. I will never forget that day at NLC when you walked up to me and asked if I was “streetsweeper”. As for the rest of you, Happy New Year and YOU be safe. Or this old MP will come gitcha!
street out!
Happy New Year to you too, Jonn.
Perhaps I am speaking out of turn here but, seems to me that TAH ain’t a farm team anymore.
Welcome to the Major League?
Shalom y’all!
thanks for having a place where I can be crazy.
@10, I agree whole hartedly. This blog is a daily read and the world would be a lot less interesting without it here to keep me amused. Happy new year to all!
Happy New Year all! Hope we get the “Change” we need!
Happy New Year to all!
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all and a special thanks to Jonn for giving us, whether AD or vet, a place where we can vent and use words more appropriate for military people.
This isn’t just any new year. The Mayans say that the world ends December 21. The good news in there is twofold. First, the world ends AFTER Obama loses the next election. Second, the Mayans couldn’t foresee their own demise so putting stock in their end day prediction for the whole world is a tad risky.
Happy New Year. Thanks for TAH!
Lucy saw Charlie at the New Years Eve Party. She had not seen Charlie in many years. When Lucy woke up the next morning she said to herself. I have not made a New Years Resolution yet.
I dreamt last night about Charlie. I think I owe it to him to make up for all those years of abuse that I gave him when we were kids.
So the next day January 2nd Lucy went to Charlie’s house and knocked on the door. When Charlie answered and ssw Lucy standing there he almost quickly shut the door again. But Lucy sensing this quickly said, Charlie I am sorry and I want to make it up to you! Well Charlie hesitated. He had not seen Lucy since his sisters wedding many years ago. Maybe she had finally changed.
How? Charlie asked.
Lucy said may I come in.
Lucy told Charlie a story of a business that she was starting up on Ebay. She said that she would offer Charlie a Partnership in the Bussiness and that with an equal investment of time and money Lucy would allow Charlie to have 52% of all profits and she would keep on 48%.
Well Charlie was very suspicous of this proposal.
You fucked with my head for years. Each time you said that you were not going to fuck with me anymore and each time you did! How do I know that you are just not up to your old tricks for old times sake?
You don’t replied Lucy but you have nothing loose.
OK said Charley but I am not happy with 52% of the profits.
You say that you want to make amends for your past behavior.
If that is the case I want 67% of the profits.
Holy shit! shouted Lucy, I was prepared to accept 46% but not a mere 33%.
Look you are saying that I have nothing to loose. Let us assume for the moment on this deal the is correct. I still have to suspect that you are just looking at making a short term sacrifice becasue you hope to gain something of greater value in the long run. Will what you gain be at my expense?
Well Lucy was kind of stumped by this question. How could she disprove that she was not just interested in appearing to be unselfish as a tactic to gain a long term advantage.
Furthermore her understanding of what a reasonable business offer taking in to account of her past bahavior and what Charle consdidered fair where quite far apart. Lucy said that she had a meeting to go to and excused herself.
As she reached her car and opened a Dr. Pepper she thought what would happen after further negotiations Chalie offered her a 60-40 spit or a 57-43 split. Such a loss of potnetial income would not only affect her it would affect her children. There would be less money for tutors and for riding lessons and piano lessons and all of the other things
that help develop a child for success not counting money for the right University or liberal arts college.
Lucy told herself that Charlie also had an obligation to be reasonable. But if we make a short term sacrifice as a tactical move to help ourselves win long term benifits of even greater value are we doing anything ethical at all?
It seems that if we want to prove that we are committed to a Christian or Muslim or Buddhist life we must always accept less than 50% of the profits so to speak. We must always and permanently accpet less to prove that we are not treating others like objects for our own ends. If the others share our ethical norms perhaps we will be saved by their counter kindness but a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist is required to not condsider whether or not the reciepient of ones kindness will repay it in kind. The believer may not have to love others unconditionally but assuming that their behavior does not cross over sacred boundaries others are to be loved as oneself. Is this a reasonable standard?
Once upon a time God asked a Man to sacrific his son to God.
The man was ready to sacrific his son to prove his love of God. Was he willing to do so without hesitation?
Before Lucy drove off she thought, what is wrong with you scratch my back I scratch yours as an ethical rule to guide our behavior? Some people just can not think straight.
No wonder Charlie and people like him are so confused.
Happy New Year to all. I am grateful to have a cyber-rec deck like TAH. Thank you for a great 2011 and wishing you all a better 2012.
Happy New Year Jonn. Hopefully the reach of TAH will continue to expand in 12′, even more then in 11′.
As Lucy pulled away from the curb a storm had quickly decended on the city. It was raining so hard that she could barely see 60 ft. in front of the car. Branches were blwoing off of trees. By the time that she got home 40 minutes later, for what should normally be a 20 minute drive she was emotionally exsausted. She laid down on the couch in the basement in case any tornado warnings were announced, and fell asleep.
She dreamt that Homer Simspon called her on the telephone to offer a guest appearance on the show. The show was going to spoof The Wire and The Wizard of OZ. In the show Bart would be working as a newspaper delivery boy in Baltimore as a cover for planting listening devices in drug markets. In this episode Bart would be deliverying Newspapers at what in most cities is called a Subway station but since Baltimore does not make any real subways they have a different name there. While delivery papers at the station in late October a fierce storm would strike and Bart would run to seek shelter on a bus parked at the station. Besides the bus driver three men would be on the bus, Newt, Ron, and Mitt.
The bus will be lifted in to the air by the storm and dropped somewhere south of Baltimore. Lucy will get to play the role of the wicked witch disquized as Hillary. If she accepts the role in addition to her salary she would get to decide which costums Newt, Ron and Mitt get to wear in the episode. As Lucy was deciding whether or not to fly out for drawing the neccessary scenes she was awoken by the ringing of the telephone. It was my wife on the telphone who wanted to set up an appointment for my next visit at her office.
Charlie felt a deep sense of unease as shut the door behind Lucy. Before the doorbell rang Charlie had been going through boxes that had been stored in the attic. The boxes contained things from the life of his parents. His father had died just before Christmas. He was a healthy man who died in a tree cutting accident. It is true that he had been diagnosed with cancer but the cancer had been in remission for over a year.
In one of the boxes Charlie had found some documents that did not make any sense. He had opened one of his High school year books that he had found in the box. When he turned to the page with his picture he found a very very old piece of paper. He could not understand it at all. First of all the letters, although they appeared to be Latin script were quite strange. The language he did not understnad either. It appeared to be German but it could have also been Dutch or Danish for all he knew. On the top of the paper was HAFTBESHEL or was it HAFTBEFEHEL. He was not quite sure. Underneath appeared to be the issuing authority. It seemed to say, KAISERLICHE GERICHT, Franfurt an der Oder. This letter seemed to be sent to a Mr. Cord Braun. There was a further mark which had the words,
Militärverweigerung. The letter was dated 1870. At the bottom or the letter was something hand written that was to Charlie totally illegible it appeared to him like, niemindkimnnstiennun, Eva.
Why was this in the box? This was even more mysterious than what he had found yesterday. The day before we had found a disacharge paper for his grandmother than indicated that she had served in the OSS during the Great Patriotic War. Why had this never been mentioned by anyone before? Had she just been a secretary or had she actually served behind enemy lines?
But now after all this time he finds something potentialy abuot his families past that does not tie them to England, possibly Germany no less. His grandfather was a truck driver in the war against Germany and had one a Silver Star no less during the Battle of the Bulge when his convoy was cut off and surrounded with other units in Bastogne.
Charlie did not want to think about this potentially new unknown history of his family. He did not know where it would lead.
Would it have implications about his identity? Then just as he was wresteling with the potential implications along comes Lucy after so many years. It was as if the Gods wanted to emphasis that the past was beginning to circle around him like a school of sharks.
Charlie sat down at the kitchen table to try to make some sense out of Lucy’s visit. A few seconds after he sat down the clock radio came on with a song by Dire Straits. He had set the alarm on the radio to rmeind him to take the chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. He hated it when the cookies got crunchy rather than soft and chewy.
He grabed a towel and pulled the cookie tray out of the oven and set it on the stove tup. He sat back down. What had Lucy been up to since he had last seen her on high school graduation day so many years ago. He had heard that she had gone to the U of M and gotten a degree in Psychology. He seemed to recall that Pig Pen had mentioned to him at one time that he had heard from a cousin who was in the Air Force that Lucy was working at the US Embassy in New Dehli and was engaged to a man named Omid who worked in New Deli for Audi. Nos she was here pitching a proposal for a dental treatment complex in Buhtan. What an improbable story.
Why on earth whould she come over here to trouble me with such BS. Women are wierd he thought. Chocolate chip cookies provide a much less complicated comfort.
It was only this evening while watching the original 12 Angry Men that I realized what an important anniversary year this is for US history. It is 200 years since the outbreak of the War of 1812. I ssem to recall that this was a War in Which Enlgand sought to reconlonize the USA after Americans won thier independce a few decades earlier.
Americans were very divided in that war. It is called the Revolutionary War but it could just as easily be called the First American Civil War. The Americans were divided in to three large factions as I seem to remember having read somewhere. One side, the rebels wanted indepence. A second side did not want independce. A third side really did not care one way or the other.
Those who fought for independence also had many reasons for wanting to be free from England. They all proclaimed that they wanted to form a more perfect Union. For many of them what that meant was they wanted to be free of the treaty obligations hindering them for justifiably conquoring the territory of the native Americans.
England ended the war by making a peace treaty in bad faith and then set about to undermine it. Begining in 1812 there was no longer any pretence of not being at war. The imperialist warmongering warcriminals from England invaded America and burned our capital. Although it was called the war of 1812 the final major battle was not fought until the 8th of January 1815. The US General at that battle would latter go on to become President. He is rembered by many Americans fondly for many things. What he is rarely remembered for is that he refused to enforce the US Supream Court decision that ruled that the removal of the Cherokee from North Carolina was illegal. Thus the removal of the Cherokee from North Carolina went ahead as planed.
But these events were all a long time ago. They no longer have any bearing on the events today. No today we Americans love the English, except perhaps for a few Catholic immigrants from the occupied part of Ireland.
I have always found it a bit funny. Ireland succeeded from the UK. 5 counties in northern Ireland succeeded from Ireland but those catholic majority towns and villages in northern Ireland were not allowed to succeed from the 5 counties.
Anyways the modern consensus is that it was all nothing really to fight over. I mean kill people for. If the fighting had been limited to words it all would have been worth while.
Of course a neo Nazi will get promoted in the US military faster than an Irish Republican so such sentiments are best kept quite by people in unirorm, even when they are out of uniform.
But one thing that should not get any American in trouble is saying Whooopoieee!! Happy Anniversary! USA! USA! USA!
I wonder if I can remember the next part of the story.
Lucy hung up the telephone. The call with the embassador had gone well. It was now time to take a little break and get her
mind off business and on to something a little more comical.
She booted up and skidded over to her favorite website, This ain’t Heaven, but you can feel it from here.
It was while on this site before Christmas that she had seen an article about some service members being charged a suicide due to harrasment report. Then before New Years an article on miracles. Then she saw old odd Charlie at the New Years Party.
He did not see her than God. Lucy was not all religous. A religous Psychologist is not very common. But she actually wondered, is this some sort of a sign?
Although the TAH page popped up she was not really reading it. She was thinking about her talk with Charles. The more that she thought about it the more that she regretted having done it. Her attempt at reconsiliation had been very inept.
She was sincere but Charlie had not seen it that way at all.
After all how could Charlie have known that she was really trying to change.
Her ex-fiance Omid had been the catalyst. She had been attracted to him by his good looks, his intellegence and his position with Audi. She thought the he was obviously a hard charging man with his shit together. But the more she got to know him the more she realized that he was actually a soft hearted liberal. No wonder those people are such loosers she began to think to herself more and more.
The final straw came when Omid spoke abuot a book on Buddhism that he was reading. It spoke of traveling to the mountain top with no climbing gear, no oxygen and not even any clothers. That did not bohter Lucy. What bothered her was Omids reaction to this opening paragraph.
He said why in the hell would anyone want to go to the mountain top anyways. People say becasue it is there. But so is the Valley. So is the Mountian side. So is my garden and the flowers need tending.
At that moment Lucy decided that she was going to call off the engagement. She now regretted her decision but she was to embarrassed to try to repair the damgage.
She first began having doubts about who she had become when she found one of Omids books in her apartment. It was a book by Erich Fromm. She saw that Omid had written quite a few notes in the margins and she decided to psychologically disect him.
It was while reading this book which incrediblly she had never been introduced to in her days at the U of M that she read about collective insanity. The idea was really very simple. A group of people believe somehing that any other people outside the group would see as ludicrous but those inside the group can not see it that way becasue their opinions reinforce each other.
From that point on she even began to question her involvement in psychology. How on earth could she diagnose other people if even she herself incapable of rooting out her own biases.
Lucy did not give much thought about her trip to see Charlie.
It was very spontaneuos. That is the type of woman that Lucy is. Afterwards she wished that she had given more thought. She knew very little about what type of person Charlie might have become since she had last seen him.
She decided that she would try again at some point but for now it was best to push this idea to the back burner.
Perhaps at some future point fate would give her another chance to make amends. One that would be more successful.
She started to scroll down the page. Just then the doorbell rang.
Ok the doorbell rang I have to stop writting now.
WTF?