This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Administrative

  • I don’t know what happened

    Somehow, my blog dumped everything Don and I have posted after Friday when I had problems with the blog the other day. I’m working on it. Discuss my incompetence among yourselves on this post.

    Update: I’ve recovered some of it. But I’m working on the latest masterpieces. Looks like yesterday’s and todays might be gone forever. I ended up retyping two posts, so if they don’t look like they did earlier, it’s because I’m not Rainman and I don’t remember how exactly the post was worded.

    I’m sorry I lost all of your great comments. Feel free to praise me again.

  • Vote for Grande Conservative Blogress Diva 2008

    Gay Patriot is hosting a poll for the Blogress Diva for 2008. I’m so torn because three of the ladies have been great friends to this blog this year and they’re in competition with each other; Michele, Pamela and Fausta. But that’s my problem – just go vote.

  • Thanksgiving wishes

    Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday – it seems in the infantry it was the only holiday we always had off guarenteed. Well, “off” was a relative term. I remember times when I’d pick up the free turkeys from the First Sergeant that were donated to our unit and drive them around to my soldiers’ families and drop them off to beaming, thankful smiles. I always got the “thanks”, but actually it was our silent and constant supporters who gave us the birds.

    When I was in the same general location as my family on Thanksgiving, we’d get into our finery, my daughters in their pink skirts, my son struggling against having his hair brushed, and I in my dress blues. Then we’d head over to the mess hall and have our Thanksgiving dinner with “our” troops. It wasn’t really mandatory most of the time that we eat with the troops. But I figured those 30+ guys kept me alive and well and employed for another year, so I was thankful to them – who better to spend the day with.

    Besides, despite the reputation of Army chow, Thanksgiving meal was always as close to Mom’s cooking as I could get.

    But anyway, anything else I could add was said better by some of the folks in my blogroll;

    Castle Argghhh

    Flopping Aces

    Hang Right Politics

    Dadmanly

    Blue Crab Boulevard

    Chickenhawk Express

    Blue Star Chronicles

    and most importantly Mark Steyn.

    To Crotchety Old Bastard, with whom I’ve shared Thanksgiving meals with in an Army Messhall a couple of times – have a safe trip and thank that son of yours for me and my family. I’d wish blessings for you, but it seems you’ve already gotten a bunch.

  • Thanks to all

    Well, we’re back from our big adventure – great food, family, friends, cigars, beer and rum as evidenced by this picture of my brother-in-law at our annual family barbeque;

    I got to have yet another meal with Renwaa, a frequent visitor and occasional commenter here, in her fancy digs – right across the street from my hotel. She makes the best pork and appetizers, and she kept me talking politics into the wee-hours. It was our third and probably final meeting. Panama will seem empty without her. Thanks for putting up with us and feeding us, Renwaa.

    COB6, Don Carl and GI Jane did a great job of keeping the readers coming back – traffic stayed steady while I was gone. They’d added some variety to my usual stuff and it proved popular.

    I want to especially thank my regular readers for giving them the same support you’ve given me over the last year. Most of you are silent, but I know you’re there and I appreciate it. It seems a lot less like barking at the moon when I see you arriving by bookmarks and RSS feeds.

    I spent today trying to catch up with events and reading blog archives over the last week. I had Fox News Channel in the hotel, but I wasn’t in the hotel much, so I’m way behind. I’ll be back up to speed soon. I also invite my three supporters to continue posting here when the mood hits them.

    Thanks to everyone.

  • Help my buddy out

    One of the best friends of this blog has been Robin from Chickenhawk Express. We chased Adam Kokesh across the internet together for months, and we both had our first grandchild the same week. She even nominated me for Best Conservative blog at the Weblog Awards – well, she made the cut for her traffic category – so shoot over to this link and vote. Often.

    I’m glad COB6’s son is safe – you have to send me your address if you want those cigars, buddy.

    The blog looks good – but I’ve lost my connection three times typing this – see ya’all soon.

    Here’s a photo from my room at 6am this morning – those are the last of Noel’s rains coming over the Dariens.

    The Panamanian women still love me 30 years later. 

  • I need a vacation

    Ya’all may have noticed some new authors around here lately, well, it’s because it’s time for my annual pilgramage to warmer climes. Last year I tried to post from paradise, but the internet was so spotty in my third world paradise, I couldn’t post often.

    Since I have a number of daily fans, I decided to turn over keys to this place to my three friends.

    GI Jane from The Foxhole and located in Ohio with whom I’ve slammed back some brews and picked crabs, COB6 from Cotchety Old Bastard, who lives in Texas and whom I’ve known since the first war against Hussein and Don Carl a former Marine who lives out in California.

    They all agreed to help me keep ya’all coming back while I’m gone, thankfully. Where’m I going?

    shared-relief-map-of-panama-1995.gif

    We’ll be staying in one of those tall buildings in the banner. The banner is actually a picture I took two years while dining with another commenter here, Renwaa.

    Well, I’m off to soak up some sun and some Havana Club, and take in the Independence Day festivities.

    Big thanks to my three buddies for taking care of the joint. Sorry – I drained the liquor cabinet last night. Don’t forget to wipe your feet.

    See ya’ll next Thursday!

  • A point of honor

    Last night I got an email from Confederate Yankee who has often been running point on the Beauchamp/The New Republic story for the entire blogoshere. He asked me to support a boycott he was starting against The New Republic. Of course I said I would, then I fell asleep waiting for the Redskins to score. But I’m refreshed this morning and so so here’s the gist of the plan from CY;

    We know that TNR allowed all three of Scott Beauchamp’s stories to be published without being competently fact-checked, if fact-checked at all.

    We know that the editors of TNR, led by Franklin Foer, lied when they said that the stories had been competently fact-checked, we know they deceived their readers and misled at least one civilian expert in an attempt to create a whitewash of an investigation.

    […]

    We know The New Republic attempted to stonewall their way through obvious, blatant, and grievous breaches of journalistic ethics. In so doing, they have attacked the service, integrity, and honor of an entire company of American soldiers serving in a combat zone to avoid taking responsibility for their own editorial and ethical failures.

    Alfred A. Knopf Allstate Amazon.com American Gas Station
    American Petroleum Institute Astro Zeneca (current issue) Auto Alliance Bearing Point
    Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (current issue) BP (current issue) Chevron (current issue) CNN
    FLAME (current issue) Federal Express The Financial Times Focus Features
    Ford Motor Company Freddie Mac GM Grove Atlantic
    HBO Harvard University Press History Channel Hoover Institution (current issue)
    MetLife Microsoft Mortage Bankers Nuclear Energy Institute
    The New School New York Times Novartis Palgrave Macmillan (current issue)  
    Simon & Shuster John Templeton Foundation (current issue) University of Chicago Press University Press of Kansas (current issue)
    U.S. Telecom Visa (current issue) The Wall Street Journal Warner Brothers
    Warner Brothers Home Video W.W. Norton Wyeth Laboratories Yale University Press (current issue)

    I’d ask U.S. military veterans, military families, active duty personnel, and the vast majority of Americans who support our servicemen and women to call these companies, institutions and agencies to pull their advertising from TNR, effective immediately.

    […]

    We cannot force The New Republic to behave honorably, but we can make their dishonesty come at a price.

    I’m 100% behind this – Beauchamp has at least decided to rehabilitate himself, on the other hand, TNR hasn’t shown the least bit of remorse for their skullduggery.

    Blackfive‘s The Wolf and Chickenhawk Express are on board.

  • This Dog Don’t Hunt

    This is an unashamed plug for a book by a long-time good friend (and he was a pretty good El-Tee in his day, too – well, as El-Tees go), J. Danny Strickland (also known as Crotchety Old Bastard). He’s had a hard-on for Lindsey Graham for at least this entire year, and he finally decided to do something about it – he wrote a book called “This Dog Don’t Hunt“.

    Now, apparently, I’m not so close to author that he saw fit to send me a promo copy (hint-hint, Danny), but what I’ve read of it in the excerpts is a good old fashioned smackdown – that only a former-Army-Ranger-sergeant-turned-90-day-wonder-turned-field-grade-officer can deliver.

    Apparently, the book comes out on October 19th – just in time for me to take it on vacation – and since I’ll be on vacation, you’ll need something to read. So pre-order the book now at Paypal – I have.