I assume everyone knows that when I complain about my blogging salary ($0) and our readers that everyone realizes I am totally kidding. That probably goes without saying, but thought I would mention it today, because of something that came yesterday.
A few weeks ago I put up this post where I talked about my lack of posting in the near term future because of the bar exam. Well, I have been ramping up my studying. I try to assail one subject each week, having completed Contracts and moved on now to Real Property. Anyway, commenter “Susan” said that she might have some stuff to help me. Man, she wasn’t kidding.
Yesterday I got a gigantic box carried into my office by Joey, our slightly insane mail room guy who calls me by my entire full given name for some inexplicable reason (and who blames every DC sporting loss to “cheating”), despite the fact that no one uses my first name eveh. Anyway, he’s a strapping lad, but he came in bent over carrying this box like the dude on the cover of Zeppelin 4 with the huge bundle of sticks. Susan sent me easily $1000 worth of study materials, and ALL the stuff I needed.
I can’t thank Susan enough, nor her colleagues at BDO Siedman LLP in Atlanta, GA. Lawyers are perhaps the most maligned group ever, and I usually join right in. But this isn’ the first time I have run into the profligate kindness of strangers engaged in the legal profession. When I was in stan I went on www.booksforsoldiers.com and requested a certain Bernard Cornwell book. I also mentioned I was a law student, and could use something legal to read. A month later down at FOB Ghazni I was delivered a box that must have cost a pretty penny to mail with enough textbooks to provide overhead cover for a 3 man fighting position. A firm in Minnesota “adopted” me and sent me a ton of reading stuff.
Anyway, I wanted to thank Susan, thank BDO Seidman, and thank all the readers for everything. Just people commenting on my posts brings me the satisfaction from blogging I wanted, but I am sincerely humbled by the generosity in all facets shown me by our readership.
So, if you have a company, move it to Georgia. Actually, I think they operate elsewhere too, but move it to Atlanta anyway.
One added note, Susan and her colleague Jack do work with the American Bankruptcy Institute setting up servicemembers with pro bono attorneys to handle any financial issues they might have. They aren’t just helping me, they help all our brothers and sisters in arms. If you know somone who needs help, just email us here and we will square you away with them.
Damned Ace of Spades. I’ve been fascinated with three wolf shirt all day since he brought it up yesterday in a post. It’s not just that the shirt looks completely bitchin’, it also has superpowers. And it comes in various models. Here is the Ace of Spades/Moronosphere one, which attracts mostly homeless women drunk on Valu-rite Vodka:
And here’s the Blackfive version, which we are uncertain just exactly who it attracts:
This thing apparently attacts women from everywhere. I mean, if you can’t believe me, you can certainly trust a hot singing native American.
I have showed the photo of the wolf shirt to a few friends, and they showed a few friends and so on etc,.. anyways, I am now receiving multiple e-mails from tons women I dont even know asking if I got the Wolf shirt yet! Also, 16 marriage proposals, 1,229 party invites, 62 BBQ cookout invites, 167 photo shoot invites just to list a few.
I purchased this very same shirt from a gypsy lady behind a Porta Potty at the chewing tobacco festival. She said it would give me powers over ladies and small elfs (elfs can only be seen after you put on the shirt). I was amazed at the color and detail and the fact the three wolves would sit side by side and sing in such perfect harmony. I went into the Porta Potty to drop a duce and put on this mythical fabric tapestry. As soon as I pulled this shirt over my head I began grunting to the moon.
But you can never trust reviews on Amazon, because you never know if they are written by people just trying to sell the damn thing. But, luckily, I have a friend that bought this shirt before a deployment. He wishes to remain anonymous, but name rhymes with “Gay no more”:
I remember it like it was yesterday, man. Our elite squad of lycans donned our protective gear, adorned with the sigils of our clan, and our goddess Luna, and we prowled the streets. We was looking for the weak or the wounded, not caring which of the two we’d find. What we discovered was a 24 hour Taco Bell with a vast corucopia of teenaged hookers and an endless supply of picante sauce. We circled the drive thru, the moonlight gleaming from our pelts, the smell of Aqua Velva and Armor-all wafting up from our loins. Jimmy, the alpha male in our pack, pulled the IROC up and we slinked out, sizing up our prey…our only fear…taco juice on shirts, ruining the protective wards given to us by the spirit of the wolf. Many fell that night…our fangs sated…our lusts quenched and Jimmy’s mom agreeing to rinse out the guac from our colors. It was a night to be remembered…a night for wolves.
If you don’t buy this shirt and you are a dude, just turn in your man card and your family jewels at the nearest NARAL or NOW office. Seriously.
But the shirt only works for men. Weird that way, I don’t understand the science, but I understand it is complicated. And you can’t just buy a three wolf shirt for yourself and get nothing for your wolf-bitches girlfriend or wife. So, we have an answer for you!
-THIS IS WHERE SERIOUS PART BEGINS-
Many of you, like me, have been reading about the good times that Vampire 6 and his gang have been having in that little sliver of Epcot center we call Afghanistan. Well, he wanted to honor some of the most important people from that deployment, and he did so in a much more eloquent fashion than I ever could.
This is a post that I’ve struggled to write many times during my deployment and each time it seems that I’ve failed. At the end I’m always left with the feeling that I didn’t quite describe their hardship, give them their true credit or convey our true gratitude. I’ll try; but am afraid I shall fail them.
I’m talking about the women that stand guard at home, support us, encourage us and reinforce that fighting spirit that sustains us. Our wives, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, volunteers and so many other wonderful and strong women that I can’t even begin to name.
Not just our team but each and every soldier, marine, sailor or airman that deploys to Afghanistan or Iraq, for that matter any conflict. A huge burden is being carried by those that fight but do not go to combat.
Thank you, for being the ones that deal with the mess once we leave. We’re trained well to fight. But there is no Field Manual that describes how to explain to a young child that their father isn’t going to be home for a long time or in the worst case may never come home. You do it with such grace and poise.
Here is one of the shirts they have (will add more later but can’t upload anymore pics):
Anyway, it is a great cause, it was a fabulous idea, and it’s a totally classy move by a guy who puts his ass on the line for us. I’m getting one for my little honey bunny (who has a post about her second bases or something, don’t know what that means) and one for my beautiful and smart sister in law who is both a breast cancer survivor, and survives daily with my beautiful nieces and brother who tire me out after 17 minutes.
Anyway, please consider buying the shirt!
-THIS IS WHERE SERIOUS PART ENDS-
So whether you are going out for a casual night on the town at Chez Burger King, or blowing an entire paycheck taking her to the monster truck races and TGIFridays, make sure you are dressed for success, you with your wolf shirt, and her in her best pink Vampire attire.
I probably shouldn’t refer to a saint as a “Badass”, but you read through this and tell me if you can come up with a better adjective.
There’s a lot of badasses out there. There’s an awesome site I go to from time to time to read about just crazy badasses. The kind of badasses who make Mr. T look like Andy Dick. My favorite of all time is Simo Häyhä and you just have to read his story to believe it, ’cause dude was off the chain. Anyway, Saint Lawrence isn’t on that site, and he definitely deserved a home, so I am giving it to him here.
First off, why St. Lawrence? Well, if Wiki is to be believed (and naturally nothing there is ever innaccurate) then St Lawrence of Rome was the patron saint of: Commedians, Canadians, Prostitutes, Students, Librarians and Chefs. That alone represents all three writers here, and conservatively 98.2% of our readership.
Anyway, Lawrence lived from circa 225 until 258, when he came to his untimely death in a manner which is even more badass than Mel Gibson in Braveheart. More on that later. According to Orthodoxwiki (does anyone NOT have a wiki at this point?):
Little is known about St. Lawrence. His Acts were lost by the time of Augustine. Legend states that he was a native of Northern Spain, who had received instruction from St. Sixtus while he was an archdeacon in Rome. When Sixtus rose to the papacy in 257, Lawrence was ordained a deacon and was charged with the administration of ecclesiastical alms for the poor.
Anyway, in August of 258, the Emperor Valerian issued a command that all priests, deacons, bishops, et al were to be put to death. According to St Ambrose of Milan, Lawrence ran into the Pope as the latter was being led to his execution. Lawrence asked:
“Where are you going, my dear father, without your son? Where are you hurrying off to, holy priest, without your deacon? Before you never mounted the altar of sacrifice without your servant, and now you wish to do it without me?” The Pope is reported to have prophesied that “after three days you will follow me”.
And so he did. They first tortured him extensively looking for information on other Christians, and then they laid him a top a grill, to be slowly cooked to death. Put somewhat more intellectually, according to The Golden Legend or Lives Of The Saints, Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275:
And the ministers despoiled him, and laid him stretched out upon a gridiron of iron, and laid burning coals under, and held him with forks of iron. Then said Laurenee to Valerianus: Learn, thou cursed wretch, that thy coals give to me refreshing of coldness, and make ready to thee torment perdurable, and our Lord knoweth that I, being accused, have not forsaken him, and when I was demanded I confessed him Christ, and I being roasted give thankings unto God.
Despite the extensive torture, Lawrence never relented and gave up the INTEL. However, shortly before his death it is reported that he yelled out to his torturers:
Assum est, inquit, versa et manduca.
“This side’s done, turn me over and have a bite.”
Anyway, from now on, for any of my Warrior’s Code posts I intend to invoke the name of St. Lawrence of Rome, the ultimate warrior. And I will of course be honoring his feast this year, as should you all, on August the 10th.
There are numerous benefits to blogging at TAH that you probably don’t know about. Obviously the fabulous wealth (I’ve made $1.27 since February), hordes of adoring women fans (thank God she likes nerds), the respect of your opponents (no link for you IVAW and VV), and drinking with your betters (by which I mean Jimbo and Matt.) Less well known though are invites to the swankee soirees. And such was my Friday.
It started when I left work to meet Jimbo at bar called the “Ugly Mug.” A more appropriate place for us to meet I challenge you to find (that isn’t a cantina on Tattoine). Hanging with Jimbo if you’ve never done so is awesome. We met a guy who claimed to be an army cook, who eventually admitted he’d served in the special forces. Hell of a nice guy. We also got to spend a lot of time with Viet Nam veterans, bike riders etc. Much was the fun. But, as wonderful as it was, I had a better place to go, and I left at quarter to seven.
I had to cross the street to go to the 8th and I Marine Barracks for their Twilight Tattoo (which is not like a tramp stamp, it is their silent drill team.) I was to be the guest of a group of people from the Spirit of America, more on them later. Shockingly, I was in the VIP section, which meant I was waiting in line with an Admiral with a Trident, and more stars than you generally see on a clear night. After showing the Marine at the garden gate my ID, I was spirited in to the Commandant’s back yard, where more refreshments were on the list. In the best of circumstances, I am a hermit, in most I am almost agoraphobic. Shockingly, I felt reasonably comfortable there. I was surrounded by brothers and sisters in arms, and those fighting the good fight even outside the confines of the military. I had a few beers in me, which eases my suffering in public, and met some unbelievably nice folks on vacation who were invited by friends. It was great.
After an hour we were escorted towards the bleachers. I can’t sit in bleachers. Or rather, I can, but I will spend the next week in traction or the ICU. As the Marine Captain (*a Marine Captain?, I thought*) escorted me to my seat, again, in the VIP section, I told him I just could not sit there. He informed me, no problem, you mind standing with some of my Marines? Mind? Hell, I could stand with Marines or sit with people in suits, of course I would stand.
I won’t go into the rest of the evening in such detail, but it was a very moving experience for me. Not just because the Marines who performed are shockingly flawless to my perception, nor because they honored a man who has done so much for the troops (again, later), but more because I essentially grilled the Marines around me for the rest of the evening. It just so happened that one Marine I was with is from the Marine Corps Institute, was from my home state of Maine, and was a lawyer. Poor guy probably wished he’d been waterboarded rather than be submitted to my ceaseless questions, but when I suggested that to him, he graciously waved it off.
Anyway, I was, as I mentioned, the guest of Jim Hake, the guy who runs Spirit of America. From their website, there objectives include:
* Increase the reach, scale and impact of the informal humanitarian activities that take place on the front lines in troubled regions.
* Contribute charitable goods that can have a positive, practical and timely impact in the local communities where American personnel are involved.
* Establish connections and strengthen bonds between the American people and those in countries struggling for freedom and democracy.
Go and look at some of their projects, and you’ll understand. Everyone asks what my most memorable experience was in Afghanistan. Well, this was it:
That movie brings tears to my eyes everytime, because when I read about how our effort there is doomed to failure, how we aren’t doing any good, I think to the kids who got bookbags, markers etc, and I honestly get mad. Spirit of America understands that this projection of “soft power” is what will bring long term successes. When you “Adopt an Orphanage in Iraq” you do more than help out just the Orphans, although you obviously do that as well. But you create something bigger than that, you create the realization in the people there that you really do care what we are doing.
I take crap from my buddies a lot over my little buddy Mokhtar from Tango 24 at Bagram. (For those who did time there, Mokhtar endeared himself to me early by fighting with the infamous gay Bob.) I brought that kid shoes and hand sanitizer, anything I could get my hands on. In return he gave me dyssentary from shish-kabobs, but that is neither here nor there. We may sit around and talk about the time we lit someone up, but the enduring legacy of our deployment wasn’t the Taliban we sent to their Virginians, it was the lives of the kids we touched. And that may take a while to bloom, but bloom it will.
So anyway, I wanted to thank Spirit of America, and commend to you to go check out their site. They are wonderful people doing wonderful things, and should be recognized for such, and I am glad that the Marines did just that.
Anyone who questions the morality of a war is automatically suspected of being unpatriotic, unappreciative of the bravery that has “kept us free,” and disrespectful of “our troops,” in a word, un-American.
But in fact the forces aren’t “serving their country” or “keeping us free.” They are doing the bidding of hack politicians, well-connected economic interests, and court intellectuals who are striving to achieve personal ambition, wealth, and historical legacies.
MLB, the Gov’t and most of society chose to have a moment of silence, Richman went a slightly different route and just attacked the dead for being idiots. Then he steers you to a 1964 movie which proves his point. Because nothing proves a point better than a movie, which is why my guilding principle in life is: Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes.
There are obscene amounts of people who have been slaughtered for the US Profit Driven Military Empire who do not count here in America on any day. People in Vietnam are still dying from the toxins dumped on their country by the US, not to mention the millions who died during that war. Let the carnage escalate in Afghanistan while we protect our personal images by turning a blind eye to Obama’s war crimes. Are you going to feel a lump of pride in your bosom when the coffins start to be photographed at Dover for this imperial crime of aggression? Will you look at those flag-draped boxes of the lifeless body of some mother’s child and think: “Now, I am free.” Is it better to be dead when Obama is president?
A tough, but real, aspect of this all to consider is, how many of the soldiers buried in coffins in military cemeteries killed or tortured innocent people as paid goons for Empire? To me, it is deeply and profoundly sad on so many levels. If I have any consolation through all of this, I learned that my son bravely refused to go on the mission that killed him, but he was literally dragged onto the vehicle and was dead minutes later before he was forced to do something that was against his nature and nurture.
Casey will always be my hero but he was a victim of US Imperialism and his death should bring shame, not pride, as it did not bring freedom to anyone. I will, of course, mourn his senseless death on Memorial Day as I do everyday.
Wow, thanks for that crock of shit.
So, which one is worse, I put it to you, my droogs to come up with an answer.
Jonn adds: I’d like to submit Bobby Whittenberg, the absolutely crackpot IVAW lunatic of the Carl Webb coven of jackals in Austin, TX in his Memorial Day message on Facebook;
So, it was with little surprise that I read this post of Dicksmith’s that Mr Wolf sent me late last night.
Vets for Freedom was founded a few months after the progressive Veterans’ organization I work with (not for, since I volunteer), VoteVets.org. You’d have to ask Pete [Hegseth] and his cronies to confirm this, but as best I can tell Vets for Freedom has served no other purpose than to be a GOP front group countering the work of VoteVets.
Now, I’m not saying that Dicksmith likes to bugger young boys, to drink the blood of young virgins from a rugby boot, to drink and then drive home to beat his girlfriend and dog, I mean, you’d have to ask his cronies about that, but what I can tell you is that master of the intertubes he is not. Rather than just using SourceWatch as a one stop shop, he might have been able to find that one of VFF’s first endorsements was for Jim Marshall, Democrat from Georgia. It would be hard to figure out why VFF’s masters in the GOP would stand for VFF endorsing their House Target #1.
….said Vets for Freedom Chairman, Pete Hegseth. “Jim has stood with us on Capitol Hill, and it’s time for us to stand with him. During his tenure in Congress, Jim has proved time and time again that politics always takes a back seat to doing what’s right when it comes to fighting our enemies and supporting those who wear the uniform. Our country needs more people like Jim in Washington.”
Vets For Freedom has emerged as one of the most influential and authoritative voices in the debate over the war in Iraq. As soldiers, the members of VFF answered the call to duty to serve our nation. Now they stand among our nation’s leaders to remind us to do our duty.
– United States Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT)
And how does one explain the comments of Brian Baird with regard to VFF?
Vets for Freedom speaks with unique authority and is an essential non-partisan voice supporting those who are committed to success in Iraq.
– United States Congressman Brian Baird (D-WA)
Wait a minute? How the hell can that be? Isn’t Baird a Democrat? Isn’t that what the “D” means? And, holy hell, isn’t he a liberal? The American Conservative Union gave the guy a 4 out of a possible 100 in 2008. That means he’s to the LEFT of Baghdad Jim McDermott.
Well, possibly it has more to do with his position on Iraq than any partisan angle. This is from Baird’s piece from August 24, 2007 in the Seattle Times.
As a Democrat who voted against the war from the outset and who has been frankly critical of the administration and the post-invasion strategy, I am convinced by the evidence that the situation has at long last begun to change substantially for the better. I believe Iraq could have a positive future. Our diplomatic and military leaders in Iraq, their current strategy, and most importantly, our troops and the Iraqi people themselves, deserve our continued support and more time to succeed.
I’m not going to go into some lengthy defense of Pete, who can ably do so himself, but a few things about Dicksmith and his post. He goes on some rant about Pete apparently now writing at the Weekly Standard. Not sure why this is even relevant, but good for Pete, he got a paying gig. And thanks for all of us it isn’t as an accountant, because Pete refers to 8+ years without an attack, when it is 7+ years without an attack. Seemingly Pete saying this is far worse for veterans than say (hypothetically) a guy who stole a car in Nevada, and was in mental health counseling during the Battle of Fallujah that he claimed to have been injured in despite never having served in the military at all. Or, worse (again, hypothetically) than saying that Viet Nam-issued vests were being distributed to our troops in Iraq, when in fact no such thing was taking place. Pete’s inability to differentiate 7 from 8 is clearly one of the biggest problems faced by returning veterans, and I am on board for jacking him up over it. VFF should do what VoteVets does and just take all his shit down, issue only a press release to a media outlet without putting anything on this blog about it, and then just go along pretending that VFF never knew the mathematically challenged Mr. Hegseth. (Here is where I would link to the many comments of Dicksmith located on “Rick Duncan’s” various VoteVets postings, but alas, they are preserved for posterity only on Jonn’s computer.)
And to close out, Dicksmith cites to Matthew Yglesias. I know the name, but know nothing about the guy and don’t care to, but Dicksmith uses this quote to characterize his belief on the fallibility of Pete’s argument that we were safer post 9/11 for our actions:
The overwhelming majority of Americans to ever be killed by foreign terrorists were killed during Bush’s presidency. And even if you give him a pass on 9/11 itself it’s still the case that his conduct of the “war on terror” led to the deaths of thousands more Americans.
Well, let me take that quote and change it a bit, and you tell me if there are any inaccuracies.
Option A:
The overwhelming majority of Terrorists to ever be killed by American Military Forces were killed during Bush’s presidency. And even if you give them a pass on 9/11 itself it’s still the case that the conduct of the “war on terror” led to the deaths of thousands more Terrorists than Americans.
Option B:
The overwhelming majority of Americans to ever be killed by a foreign government were killed during Roosevelt’s presidency. And even if you give him a pass on Pearl Harbor itself it’s still the case that his conduct of the “war on the Axis powers” led to the deaths of thousands more Americans.
So, here we go again, a VoteVets guy who doesn’t do any research, throws in some ad hominem attacks under the guise of “go look for yourself at Source Watch” whose primary concern is with Pete’s ability to count, who closes with an argument from another liberal blogger than has no bearing on the argument at hand. It’s almost becoming cliché at this point, no?
ADDENDUM: For a bit of added idiocy, or to get a 2404 if you need one, go read Jon Stolz’s piece over at VoteVets today on why Petraeus could never be the 2012 GOP Nominee because he thinks we shouldn’t torture people and we should close Gitmo.
