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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! December 2, 2005
18 TrackBacksA key indicator for the struggling Iraqi economy reported sharp declines in November, bringing harsh criticism from leading Democrats, who are in a panic that the US Military is downplaying what they see as a looming crisis.... Read More You might be a liberal If... You believe the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of funding. You are against capital punishment, but for abortion on demand, in short you support protecting the guilty and killing the innocent. You Read More Family Research Council's Charmaine Yoest seizes mic from Kim Gandy Please forgive the-day-in-the-life post from Your Business Blogger. I was in the middle of drafting an article on the glass ceiling for women. And got a first person account... Read More Tucker Carlson in his latest column, "Don’t Patronize our Troops", which can be found here and here, discusses the same report that I wrote about earlier this week. He writes, “You often hear people compare the war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam, but ... Read More Thanks to JR at the Vietnam Veterans Home Page for the heads up on this up and coming Muslim standup comic, Goffaq Yussef: *************** Good evening gentlemen, and get out, ladies. *************** On my flight to New York there must have... Read More A surprisingly comprehensive new report on Osama bin Laden may cause people to reevaluate the way they look at the terrorist mastermind. Per the report:Osama bin Laden wants the United States to convert to Islam, ditch its constitution, abolish banks, Read More A society that decries torture in absolute terms cannot then approve of its citizens using it, even to save themselves. No matter who is affected, no matter how many. If even the most ruthless, cold-hearted terrorist was tortured in the process of ob... Read More Capt. Jeffrey P. Toczylowski, who lived near The Man and I, was an Army Special Forces Officer who tragically fell from a helicopter and was killed in Iraq. His parents and his friends received this email that was written just prior to his acciden... Read More I, and I think most people, have always assumed that advances in civilization have then brought about increases in women’s rights. But what if that has it backwards? What if the real cause effect is that increases in women’s rights Read More I was eleven when I first saw his name on the wall of my father's new squadron at NAS Miramar, VF-121. The squadron was the Pacific Fleet Fighter Weapons Squadron and upon first entering the building, there was a wall painted with an F-4 Phantom firing... Read More Hat tip: SondraK The ACLU is up to their anti-US, anti-defense, anti-security litigation again. This time they are suing the CIA based on “secret prisons” and the allegations of one man. A US civil rights groups says it is taking the CIA... Read More Grandma got run down by a carriage driver as she was absconding with the local nativity scene's Baby Jesus: Virginia Voiers thought she was taking part in a rambunctious holiday custom, but a carriage driver thought differently and called police when ... Read More Yep - that is the headline the N&O runs on page 1 today (from a NYT story). We have already criticized the MSM for not calling those who seek chaos in Iraq terrorists (or in some cases militants or insurgents) rather than rebels. But the issue with t... Read More As if following the compulsory cue from the left-wing pressure groups, the hysteria of the mainstream media regarding the nomination of Judge Sam Alito appears to have made a deliberate crescendo this week. The penultimate moment of the crescendo came ... Read More Congratulations are in order: Sixteen Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division and one Army spouse became the newest U.S. citizens during a ceremony there Nov. 30. Administering the oath of office was Judge George H. Lowe, U.S. District Court Jud... Read More A friend and former member of my congregation is a Marine officer currently deployed in al-Anbar Province in Iraq. In reply to a recent email, he writes: I enjoyed getting your letter and I, and all the Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen... Read More Earlier this week an AP article by Calvin Woodward received a nomination for "The Most Ludicrously Biased Story of 2005" from Powerline's John Hinderocker. Today, another AP writer, William Kole, has come up with what should at least qualify as a ... Read More Time Magazine has just published an article titled “Getting the Lowdown on Iraq,” which reminds me of a lesson from long ago. I was a company commander in a mechanized division at the time. Walking out after a rare “town hall” type meeting with a gen... Read More 7 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Tried to do a trackback but got an error message saying I was pinging too quickly....
Here's my link:
http://belowbeltway.blogspot.com/2005/12/show-us-your-papers.html
I too attempted to tracklink, received this message "You might not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials you supplied."
Here's my link...
http://clarkmtnmusings.blogspot.com/2005/12/wanted-terrorists-returning-to-gaza.html
CHINA & THE U.S. AGREE ON TORTURE
"The authorities ban only the sort of torture, called kuxing in Chinese, that meets a narrow definition of violent punishment leaving a lasting impact, like scars or disability, Mr. Nowak said. Officials have not done enough to outlaw physical or psychological abuse that does not produce a visible injury, Mr. Nowak said.
"He said his investigation showed that such techniques include hooding and blindfolding, beating by fellow prisoners, use of handcuffs and ankle fetters for long periods, exposure to extreme heat or cold, being forced to maintain awkward postures for long periods and the denial of medical treatment. Sleep deprivation, he said, is perhaps the most common violation of what he called international standards of prisoner treatment."
Does anyone know the Chinese phrase for "fraternity pranks?" Hey, Greyhawk and his Jawohl! crowd, how does it feel to know that your Fake President gets his tactics from the Chinese? I wonder if he bought the book at Wal-Mart.
Like others, I have been a no-go on Open Post trackbacks to the Mudville Gazette. So I have tried with the last one that never got thru for about two weeks now. All of a sudden it worked? Does this mean "stuff" is fixed? Sure hope so!
Have you guys been able to figure out where the glitch is?
This great Nation is simmering and if things keep rolling along as they have been I believe the pot might just boil over sometime in the future. The democrats , if they persist in following the path they have chosen are going to literally tear this country apart. And if that is their goal , they're getting awfully close to success. Let's start with the war in Iraq. To begin with I was against the war , but as soon as boots were on the ground and our young men and women were commited to combat , I shut up. I shut up, not because I reversed my position or my belief. I shut up because it was the right thing to do. I did so because as a conscientious American ( not a hyphenated American, though being born in Germany) I will never utter one word that might be construed in such a way that might bring harm to our servicemen and women. Now if I know not to do something that would bring harm to them, then what excuse can elected officials who stand on the floor of the House of Representatives have. Let's forget for now what Nancy Pelosi has said. Let's start with the one they trotted out and hid behind, Congressman Jack Murtha. Yes , Mr, Murtha served in Viet Nam. Yes, Mr. Murtha was wounded and received the Purple Heart. So what, that does'nt make one damn little bit of difference in this matter. Honorable deeds done in the past, are just that. Something that one participated in or did a long time ago. Certainly this is not to say he shouldn't be remembered or honored for those deeds, he should be. But calling for a pullout in the middle of war, a war that by any objective standards we are winning. Yes, I said winning, is absolutely one of the worst actions that I have ever seen taken by a United States federal elected official. That is until this same man, Congressman Jack Murtha comes out and says that the military is broken. With United States Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen currently in combat one of their own Congressmen, comes out and tells the world our military is broken. Now lets throw in all the shameful, no strike that, disgraceful things said and done by various other Leaders in the democrats party. Lets stop all this now. There was no doubt in nineteen ninety-eight and nine, that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Both parties agreed and did so publically. So did most of the civilized governments around the world. There was no doubt in two thousand-three about weapons of mass destruction, either. Again, leaders in both parties knew this along with the rest of the world. Forget the United Nations opinion. Anyone, at least anyone with an I.Q above room temperature knows now the U.N. is finished. The organization has zero credibility. Most of us have realized this for years. Let them go hand out and distribute food and medical supplies, and this should only be allowed with adult supervision. I don't want them on the continent, much less in our country. And forget Vanity Fare covergirl Plame and that goofy husband hanging on her skirt. Those two clowns remind me of Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 or one Jethro Bodine's double naught spies, for you youngsters, refer to TV Land. Back to the democrats ( Nationally elected ones) what they are doing has gone way past politics, with their fellow travellers in main stream old media they are dancing with the devil. And many are skirting and flirting with TREASON, and I don't believe we should be skittish about it. If this were reality or say 1944 around early June and these same antics were going on same said people would be run out of the country or tied to a post, given a cigarette and asked if they had any last words to say. And yes it was proper to offer the condemned a cigarette, back then.
Cordially,
Rick Hoffman
posted previously @
Acme Liberation Front
And many are skirting and flirting with TREASON, and I don't believe we should be skittish about it.
I agree. It's treasonous to lie your way into a war, and to order the torture of enemy combatants and civilians in violation of treaty obligations, long-standing American policy and core American values. Fuhrer Bush and his henchmen should be removed from their positions and put on trial for war crimes under the precedents established at the Nuremberh Trials of 1946
I agree. It's treasonous to lie your way into a war, and to order the torture of enemy combatants and civilians in violation of treaty obligations, long-standing American policy and core American values.