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

Category: Media

  • CNN: We need to crack down on this free speech fad

    I picked up this video at our buddy, Gateway Pundit. Anchors Kyra Phillips and John Roberts at CNN discuss how there’s just too much free speech going on out here and it’s cutting into their own credibility and viewer share;

    Their claim is that there are just too many stories going around that they don’t approve of and they just don’t have the time to check the stories out (like it’s somehow the responsibility of jerks with J-school diplomas to cleanse the internet). Kind of like all of the crap CNN started spreading on the cable-ways which spawned the need for bloggers.

    I’ll admit that I jumped the gun twice on phony soldier stories, but I owned up to it both times. I’ve never seen CNN own up to any of their mistakes – so I guess they ought to clean up their own yard before they start complaining about mine.

    Besides, this Sherrod story wasn’t too far off the mark. I mean, all of this crap about her not saying what we think she said is horseshit – it’s on video. It’s not like we put words in her mouth. And her audience was laughing and clapping and having a good old time before they knew how the story was going to turn out.

    The video shows what it shows and no amount of false hand-wringing over bloggers will change that.

    ADDED Sporkmaster:

    Seems like the Simpson were a head of the game when they made this.

    Kent: A new Internet watchdog is creating a stir in Springfield.
    Mr. “X”, if that is real name, has come up with a
    sensational scoop.
    Homer: [watching at home] Darn tooting!
    Kent: But we must never forget that the real news is on local
    TV, delivered by real officially licensed newsmen, like
    me, Kent Brockman. Coming up: how do they get those dogs
    to talk on the beer commercials? [a reporter in a big
    cowboy hat appears]     Cowboy Steve will tell you!

  • Astore: The troops aren’t heroes

    Ben sent us this link yesterday to an opinion piece by William Astore, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel published in the LA Times. Astore is tired of our troops being called heroes;

    since the events of 9/11, there’s been an almost religious veneration of U.S. service members as “Our American Heroes” (as a well-intentioned sign puts it at my local post office). But a snappy uniform — or even dented body armor — is not a magical shortcut to hero status.

    By making our military a league of heroes, we ensure that the brutalizing aspects and effects of war will be played down. In celebrating isolated heroic feats, we often forget that war is guaranteed to degrade humanity as well.

    So, next time you talk to our soldiers, Marines, sailors or airmen, do them (and your country) a small favor. Thank them for their service. Let them know you appreciate them. Just don’t call them heroes.

    Well, while I might agree on some tiny aspect that everyone who puts on the uniform is not a hero, I’m wondering what prompted this veteran to write such drivel. To bolster his point, he quotes to Star Wars’ fictional personage Yoda. when the animatronic character says “Wars not make one great.” WTF? That line was written by a Hollywood writer, but because it is spoken by the great Yoda, that makes it somehow wise?

    My main complaint about this fuckwaddery is that it was even written. What could possibly be the motivation of a veteran to give ammunition to the people just waiting for an excuse to hock a lugie in the direction of anyone in military uniform? Do these cum bubbles think before they type?

    In a country where fewer people have any semblance of military service than have 24 straight hours of World of Warcraft play why would we want to waste column inches on telling people we’re no heroes. I’ll grant you that most veterans feel that way…but why put it in print for sheep class?

    Veterans are our own worse enemy. Take Gordon Duff whose latest missive declares that “Not all phonies are phony” under the heading “The Stolen Valor Act has always been a joke“. Of course, Gordon has no Purple Heart or Silver Star so why should it bother him if a bunch of phonies are running around wearing one?

    The same goes for Astore – I’m guessing he never did anything during his career to distinguish himself among his peers, so he wants to bring us all down to his lowly existence as a history teacher at the Pennsylvania College of Technology – certainly an heroic profession well above that of a soldier (no, I’m being sarcastic).

    While possibly not heroic, the profession of arms takes a measure of courage and sacrifice. Beats the shit out of me how Astore got through.

    Added: Toothless Dog sends a link to previous work by Astore. I’m guessing most of his Air Force career was in the Reserves.

  • Battle of Wanat revisited.

    Since the removal of the letters of reprimand there is been some protests. This one caught my eye that was posted by Thomas E. Ricks.

    He has been posting articles about the families of those who where involved.

    Scores of men who were at Wanat have testified that they were down to one bottle of water. When they did get resupplied at the end, the water was so laced with iodine it was almost impossible to drink in the 100 degree weather. Yet because the commanders, trying to save their own skin, told Campbell that the troops had enough water, he took their word for it. In his sham investigation Campbell apparently interviewed only the three commanders being charged. That’s not an investigation, it’s a whitewash.
    Part 1

    “Was it absolutely necessary that Wanat be occupied given the economy of force mission, terrain and obvious scarcity of resources? Did the Battalion and Brigade allow themselves to become overextended, continuously putting their soldiers in unduly high-risk situations?”

    Part 2

    Part 1

    Part 2

    Part 3

    There too much without quoiting the entire website. But the one on part three is something else. It was claimed that it was written by the father of one of the Soldiers that was killed in the battle, Cpl Pruitt Rainey. Yea it is one of those that you have to read it for yourself.

    Now trying to figure out the truth in any of this is going to make finding a needle in a haystack a cake walk.

  • Dodge commercial

    I guess this has been around for a month or so, but today is the first time I’ve seen it. Good job, Dodge.

  • Post: Reagan is arming Mex cartels

    The Washington Post reports that Reagan and Bush I are supplying the drug cartels in Mexico with hand grenades with this headline and first paragraph of a story today;

    Of course, if you read further in the article, you’ll find this paragraph towards the end of the page that’s added almost as an after thought;

    Not all grenades found in Mexico are American-made. Many are of Asian or Soviet and Eastern European manufacture, ATF officials said, probably given to leftist insurgents by Cuba and Nicaragua’s Sandinistas.

    I guess the point of the article is that we shouldn’t support foreign governments who are battling the same enemies we’re fighting. We sent grenades, among other arms to aid our allies who were fighting for their lives against communists. It wasn’t some nebulous ideology, it was a real threat which thrived on an imprisoned population and they murdered their citizens without a hint of justice.

    It happened in Cambodia, Cuba and Vietnam, and it would have happened in Central America without US support to popularly elected governments. The fact that “many” of the grenades are from Communist Europe attests to that threat. We didn’t win the cold war by sitting on our lawns working out the complexities of lawn darts.

    When communism was no longer a threat, we left (so much for being imperialist war lords) and those countries, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica got back to their own business. Part of their own business was guarding the grenades we left them. They’re not children – we don’t have to take all of the dangerous toys away when we leave.

    Racist Leftists piss me off.

  • HuffPo Poster Claims To Know More About War Than People Who Have Actually Been In One

    Nick Turse over at the Huffington Post knows a lot about war, even though he has never been in one. He knows so much in fact that he can tell people like Sebastain Junger who has actually in been in a war that they don’t know what they are really talking about.

    Turse has a lot of issues with Junger, which really boil down to the fact that Junger didn’t make an anti-war film (It should be pointed out that Turse wrote a book about why we should withdraw from Afghanistan). More below the fold…

    (more…)

  • Megyn Kelly wears out NY Post columnist

    Megyn Kelley tells Kirsten Powers, New York Post columnist, that she’s ignorant about the New Black Panther voting rights case as Powers dances around the actual subject of the discussion, that being Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman claim that he’s “not aware of that case”.

    I only wish they’d been in the same studio and there was a wading pool full of jello which just happened to be near by.

  • Setting up Mattis

    The general appointed to run Central Command to replace General Petraeus, James Mattis is the Washington Post‘s latest target. They post this heavily edited al Jazeera video on their website;

    “It’s fun to kill some people” is an actual quote from General Mattis, however you have to scroll down a few paragraphs ro read the context of the quote;

    “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years, because they didn’t wear a veil,” Mattis said. “You know guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot ’em.”

    The quote is five years old, but apparently because the media has been unsuccessful thus far ending this particular war, they’ll dredge up ols quotes to get rid of the military’s most effective leaders. The new sport.