Blogging Backlog

First, h/t to Gateway Pundit and others. There are few photos which can sum up the war in Iraq better than this one.

Apparently a suicide bomb had just been detonated.

Where else in this world are you going to hide?

Even the occasional Englishman recognizes precisely what that uniform--and the nation that issues it to us--is good for.

It's even far better to be detained by our least professional dirtbag (not linking to pictures of Skanky Ho and her Boyfriend from the West Virginia Reserve unit or the nekkid man-pyramids), than it is to be picked up by our opposition. Just ask the 42 folks--including a 14 year old boy--who were 'detained' by al-Qaeda for as long as four months before being freed by our guys. For those looking for more details (parental discretion advised if you have small children in the room) you can check out the manual on interrogations our opposition uses.

Probably aren't going to see that one in the New York Times, but then again they can't be trusted to accurately report their own poll results either. h/t Dadmanly.

Other stories you won't see in the New York Times are those about how the United States Army and our Marine counterparts have adapted to the modern three-block war in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq. In this war, a cell phone can be the most powerful weapon at a commander's disposal. The leftist-controlled media, the people who want you to think we are losing the war, won't run stories like this. Just like they won't write about Iraqi people taking up arms to throw al-Qaeda out of their villages and neighborhoods. We see this, and some of us are getting pissed. Some of us have been pissed for a while, but that's fine too. It's interesting that the 'big boys' of the media are no longer interested in embedding to get these stories, preferring to sip mixed drinks in the hotel lounge reading emails from "stringers" and sending back footage of whatever exploded in Baghdad that day instead of doing, you know, actual journalism. Of course, the reason is that the home office isn't interested anymore either, because embeds not only get a story that doesn't fit the script but they also start seeing US Soldiers as real people, not the paper cutouts that we get portrayed as in the MSM.

At least my least favorite made-for-TV pseudo-celebrity has dramatically called it quits. Hopefully she'll stay home for a while and get some real help from a mental health professional instead of blowing every Democratic politician she can find, then being shocked when people don't take as more than another cheap whore. (That's a metaphor, y'all. I don't mean that literally)

Meanwhile, Islam continues its parade of insanities around the world, a particularly jarring (for this adult convert to Orthodoxy) example occurring in Maylasia, where a woman who has been a Catholic for nearly a decade has been denied permission to change her identity documents to reflect that conversion. You see, she wants to marry a Catholic man. Can't have that.

In the Presidential Race news, Mrs. Clinton announced she is going to give up all the privileges she enjoys that the average American doesn't. I think. Oh, wait. I'm sorry, when she says that she wants 'the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none.' She doesn't actually mean that. What she means is that she wants to dip further into your wallet. She's important enough to keep her privileges. Oh, and it's funny how private property has become, in liberal-speak, a privilege--unless you are a rich liberal. It's only the middle class that get soaked by their tax hikes. Gray Wolf asks, as do I, precisely how much of Mrs. Clinton's $50 million net worth is going to be redistributed my way.

This story is one that is pretty crazy, but I hope it's true, because that would be evidence of far greater common sense than the Administration usually displays. It's not a solution (right now the leading idea in the Long-Term Solution column is to let the Israelis nuke Iran flat) but it might buy time.

Top Ten Stupid Criminal Tricks: Breaking into the home of a combat vet. We're twitchy, we sleep lightly, and more than a few of us own guns. Oh yeah, and once you kill someone it is a lot easier to kill again when you are in a situation where it is justified. Bad idea, stupid! But what blows my mind is the reaction of the stupid kid's father.

“We have choices, and those we hang with have choices,” he said. “It’s sad that tragedy has to strike in such a way for our youth to see that running around and hanging out with the hip people doesn’t amount to anything.”

WTF? Personal responsibility for the choices we make? It speaks a great deal to the moral courage of father that he can look past his emotional response to make a well-reasoned statement of this kind. I salute him. And I hope that the shooting does serve as a lesson to the kids at the school who were so deeply affected.

Speaking of shootings, but this one far more cheerful, an 11-year old kid whacked a giant hog with a .50 caliber handgun. I'm impressed. I'm amazed. I'm still firmly resolved never to buy a .50 caliber handgun because frankly, hunting anything that can't shoot back doesn't get my adrenaline flowing like hunting Hajjis does, and besides if I'm going after anything more than, say, 500 lbs, I'm using a damn rifle like my ancestors did, thank you very much. Note for the record I'm not saying HE shouldn't hunt giant pigs with a giant handgun, just saying I'm unlikely to any time soon.

On the other hand, I'd love to get at the hams off of that thing.

In the 'too surreal to be believed' a female minister gets a sex change and become a male minister. I thought this was just goofy Protestant hi-jinks, until I got halfway down the article.

I'm far less disturbed by the Methodists ordaining a transsexual than I am by the fact that the Methodists ordained someone who could say this:

"My transition to live fully as the male I know myself to be is very personal and deeply spiritual. As a Christian, I worship God – I AM. People frequently asked Jesus, 'Who are you?' His response was, 'Who do you say I am?' 'Who do YOU say YOU are?' I believe that our spiritual path is, in great part, the answer to: Who am I? I am..."

I give two shits what physical gender you are, if you seriously compare yourself to Jesus Christ in this way and even say, "I AM" in that context, you're engaging in blasphemy and self-deification and I would not want you in a leadership position of any kind what so ever.

Even less seriously, we have an article on the ideal Greek Coffee that my wife drew my attention to. I have a serious jonesing for proper Greek coffee (yeah, I know, it's about the same thing as Turkish coffee, but I hang with too many Greeks to call it that. Good way to get stabbed.) but my brikis are in my household goods, not yet arrived from Germany. Or at least, I hope my brikis are in my HHGs. I haven't actually seen them since before Iraq. I would be deeply unhappy if I had to replace them. They are just little two-cup brikis (and that's espresso-sized cups) but still. . . I don't anticipate a need for a larger one unless I host gatherings of Greek folks, and this article explains why.

Let me end as all things should end, with discussion of the End of All Things, to wit, death and death's relation to politics and community. There's a fascinating article on First Things on the subject of death. Grab a cup of coffee and read it. Then put your thoughts in my comment section. I am of mixed opinions about the article, though the basic premise appeals to my beliefs and worldview. I particularly approve of this passage:

Without the communion of the dead, the heroism of martial self-sacrifice is irretrievably stained with slaughter: either to be denounced for its inherent blood-letting (to the dangerous loss of any concept of just war, honor, and glory) or, even more frighteningly, to be extolled for its spilling of enemy blood.