Newspeak

Anyone with a brain and money they earned ought to be pissed off when they hear these words: economic justice.

Additions to the Music Library

One of the few upsides to this place is the base library. It's not huge, but people tend to donate CDs as they rotate out. And as most of the population here is between 18 and 50, there's a pretty good range of music available. This week I ran across a few CDs worth adding to the library.

Annie Lennox - Medusa
Shooter Jennings - The Wolf
Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keyes
Sam Kinison - Live from Hell

As I get older, I don't change my tastes so much as I add to them. I've begun enjoying female vocalists a lot more the last few years. Especially bluegrass and soul. Annie Lennox has always had a beautiful voice, but it's taken me too long to appreciate it. Alicia, well, it wasn't her voice that got my attention first, but it's too good to be ignored.

Shooter Jennings on the other hand, will go extremely well with the bike and whiskey at the next rally. Which can't come soon enough.

Sam Kinison I actually saw in Iowa City back in the late '80s. Extremely offensive, and funnier than anyone else I've ever seen. Not many like him, although a lot try.

All the above are way better than anything you're going to find on the radio in the Sinai.

Shocked! Shocked, I am!

But he seems like such a nice young man on the news.....

As the Soldiers where lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn’t say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General. As he finished, the vehicles took him to the ClamShell (pretty much a big top tent that military personnel can play basketball or work out in with weights) so he could take his publicity pictures playing basketball. He again shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service.

See the rest over at the Rottweiler's.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Wow. What can I say. Where to start? Three different paint schemes. A muzzle brake better suited to a .50 caliber rifle. Lovely.

I Is IT Guy?

My latest additional duty: systems administrator (one of three) for our medical information system network.
How did I get this fabulous new duty? Why, I know how to look up the C: drive! Therefore, I am eminently qualified to manage a 6-foot high stack of electronics in the super-secret Closet o' Computers, formerly known as the Closet o' Prostate Exams. From here, I control passwords, backups, and user access. And I can see who's been where on the web (sheep fetishists, be warned. Being in the Middle East is no excuse).
Ah, the power.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Let's just say that the taste that went into the adornment was equal to the morals of the previous owner. Tip of the hat to (and more info at) Unblinkingeye.

Oooooh, the Irony

We recently had a PC ruckus. One of our members, an Idealistic Young Man, thought he would help break the monotony of our daily routine by posting a "this day in history" in our e-mail during the working week. So, he suscribed to an internet service to get his daily information from. Which worked nicely for the past month. Until July 13th. Apparently not much has happened on the 13th, historically speaking. So there was a lot of filler. Including the birthday of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Which IYM didn't give much thought to. A lot of other people did. For noting the birthday of Gen. Forrest, IYM got a visit from the equal opportunity NCO, since she received many visits shortly after the post went up. Now, from a personal perspective, I don't see much point in getting riled on noting the birthday of someone who, from my point, isn't particulary admirable. There's a difference between noting an event, and approving of something the event led to later. Shall we airbrush all the picture of NBF out of textbooks next? How about R.E. Lee? Or the founding fathers, since many of them participated in a system the civil war ended? (disclaimer at end of post, in case you're one of those people just looking to be offended)

But this is the military. So after a long lecture on sensitivity, IYM was allowed to go on his way, suitably chastened.

But why is the ironic? IYM spent a week of his personal leave time campaigning for Obama. He can't tolerate any display of racism. And he's a hard-core leftwinger.

I wonder if he's learned anything about the price PC costs all of us. I doubt it.

(For the record, as we've come to this these days: I'm neither a racist nor a bigot. I DO NOT believe in inherent superiority/inferiority due to melanin content, continent of origin, or cultural background. I'm in favor of judging (yes, judging) individuals on the merits I find of value, such as honesty, fair play, integrity, and the desire to better one's self. And if you think that's wrong, I don't much give a damn about your opinion)

So That's Their Idea of a Hero

On April 22, 1979, Kuntar's terror cell reached the shore of Nahariya in a rubber dinghy; they shot at a police car and killed an Israeli police officer. At midnight they broke into the Haran family home, and abducted the father, Danny, and his four-year-old daughter, Einat. The mother, Smadar, the two-year-old daughter Yael, and a neighbor hid in a bedroom crawlspace.

The terrorists took the hostages towards the shore and, when they encountered law enforcement officers and IDF soldiers, Samir Kuntar shot Danny Haran at close range and cold-bloodedly slaughtered Einat by bashing her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle. In the hiding place at the Haran home, baby Yael suffocated to death from her mother’s attempts to keep her quiet so the terrorists would not find them.

The local CNN channel is showing live feeds from the big Hezbollah celebration in Lebanon. Celebrating men who's highest achievement was murdering unarmed civilians, including a four year old girl. How many generations of inbreeding does it take to sink to this level of degeneration?

Samir Kuntar, Child Murderer and Hero of Hezbollah

ApparentlyIsrael tortured the hell out this bastard by overfeeding him on high cholesterol foods, by looking at him on the stage. He still has the glazed sociopath/zealot look of his image above, but with extra chins. Very sharp in his brand-new Hezbollah fatigues, taking in the cheering masses in Beirut.

Now we have the head of of Hezbollah ranting on TV about their victory over Zionism, the new strategy they'll be pursuing, and the return of the moldering corpses of their 199 "martyrs" to the cause of slaughtering Jews over the years. The crowd is ecstatic. I'm wishing there was a way to drop a daisy-cutter in the middle of the square.

Hezbollah head sociopath Nasrallah & anonymous friend

I sincerely look forward to reading about these two having an explosive accident in the future. Hopefully it will be an extended, painful experience for them both.

Horribly Cheesy, Yet Shamefully Enjoyable...

GORBACHEV: THE MUSIC VIDEO - BIGGER AND RUSSIANER from Tom Stern on Vimeo.

..like an enchilada from Taco John's at 2 AM in the morning after an Ouzo binge.

Boobs, zombies, and commies. Sounds like the short definition of the DNC, but it's some kind of god-awful video I watched over at Ace of Spades. It's like MST 3000 crossed with MTV.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Nothing say quality like grips full of steel #6 shot!

Oops.

I actually forgot today was Sunday. Here in Sandystan, Sunday is Monday. And in my defense, I got into an online grad school that I'm desperately trying to keep current in. So, I will find a visual atrocity tomorrow, in between black funks and panic attacks........

Note to Self:

It is virtually impossible to log into your blog when everything on the page is in Hebrew. Nothing like 10 minutes of "let's hit this link and see what happens!".

Go Forth And Conquer...

The Savior of Mankind, seen during his speech, and shortly afterward enjoying a bottle of cerebrospinal fluid water, sans makeup, recently made a statement that bother those busy-bodies who assert they have an understanding of history:

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," he said Wednesday. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

Thank goodness for a strong, guiding hand to keep me safe from..um...my personal decisions or the vast right wing conspiracy..or something bad, anyway.

But some people just aren't ready to accept the social engineering of their betters:

"I know he’s not talking about the militia here. He’s talking about a “civilian national security force”. I can’t help myself, and I’m going to Godwin the heck out of this post, but the very first thing that popped into my head when he said that was the Brownshirts."

Well, fine then. To convince you of our future undead overlord's president's benign intent, I give you a glimpse of the top-secret new uniforms for the civil force that will eat our brains assist us in becoming a more peaceful, placid nation.

Reincarnation?

Don't believe in it myself; but you could do a hell of a lot worse for a previous life.

I'll I Wanted Was A Patch....

but he pretty much gave me the shirt off his back. Actually out of his closet, but close enough. Thought the patch in the first image would be a nice addition to stuff on the vest for cycle rides, so asked our Fijian dentist if he thought their supply sergeant would swap me for something of mine. He thought it would be easier just to give me the whole jacket.

Gotta rummage through the extra gear and see what I have. He doesn't want anything, but I don't want him thinking Americans are ungrateful mooches.

Sunday Ugly Gun

Designed to circumvent then-existing U.S. laws defining a machine gun, the Sputter Gun was a modification of the British Sten Submachine Gun. Lacking a trigger, the Sputter Gun was designed to, upon release of the bolt, fire multiple rounds until all ammunition was expended. The Sputter Gun was, however, reclassified as a machine gun by the ATF. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputter_Gun)

Some Random Thoughts On The 4th

A happy 4th of July to all, especially those who are celebrating it in a filthy, hot, hostile environment. May your 4th be singularly quiet and peaceful, with time to catch up on some sleep, a decent shower, and an above average meal.

Dumbassery

I just came back from supper, which happened to be grilled brats over at a friend's barracks. If you have a choice between our mess hall and anything else, anything else will usually win. Until now. I will not, under any circumstances, even on fish head soup night, go over there if Inbred Contractor Guy is present. Because I could only tolerate this once:

You only get hangovers because America doesn't have European purity laws for its beers;

You'll never be willing to eat American beef products once you've had European beef;

The Irish need to stop holding up the European Union, and the peace and prosperity that will flow forth once it is achieved;

All Serbs all evil bloodthirsty monsters;

All Albanians are troublemakers responsible for most of the problems in Europe;

Gun control is a foregone conclusion, so I should get rid of everything I own;

Since deer don't shoot back, no civilians should have scary rifles;

The Pope is a closet Nazi;

All Catholics are closet Nazis, and responsible for all of Europe's problems;

All European governments are secretly controlled by the Vatican;

The Catholic church is actually a degenerate form of the Roman Jupiter worshipping cult.

At which point I excused myself, as kicking someone in the balls seems to invariably lead to trouble, no matter how much good it would do the gene pool.

Sleep Deprivation Thoughts

Still can't sleep. Saw Night Of The Living Dead (remake) this morning inbetween PT and going to the clinic for duty. Then I saw this:

He would've fit right in. No make-up required. Lord knows most of his devotees act as though something has eaten their brains.

Quality Entertainment

It's late, and I can't sleep. So, it's the web and TV. And here in Sinai, that means one of the three English speaking channels that comes into the barracks. So what am I watching? Don't know the name (oops, found it: Wasabi), but a French film with transvestite criminals speaking dubbed English with Arabic subtitles is... mind-bendingly bad.

No Guns, No Violence....

....or not.

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian man plowed an enormous construction vehicle into cars, buses and pedestrians on a busy street Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding at least 45 before he was shot dead by an off-duty soldier.

I honestly don't know whether to regard it as good or ill, but a massive portion of Americans seem to be unable to comprehend that murder is a matter of motivation, rather than means. I have at hand around my desk this moment, at least ten devices not intended to harm anyone that will do the job just fine, although inelegantly. I see very little, if anything, that would stop a determined attack against me without incurring a high risk of injury to me.

And for the alleged lady with a pistol who responded first: Good for you, and practice your anti-armor drills. Two in the torso and a third in the thinker, and you probably won't have that problem of a temporary stop.