Obama-mania, and Badasses

I've done a couple posts with themes, so it's about time to do one with collections of links.

Obama-mania seems to have settled down. SNL made fun of him, NAFTAgate has blown up in his face, one of his advisors lost her damn mind, and his latest endorsement came from narco-terrorist communists in South America. There's questions about finance.

His biblical exegesis is raising eyebrows. One of his good buddies and fundraisers is on trial.

He's even been caught waffling on whether or not he'll withdraw troops from Iraq, which amuses me greatly.

I'm giggling with glee. Yes, that's right folks. I am enjoying this presidential campaign a great deal. Here's how I see it. If McCain isn't caught in bed with a 12 year old boy between now and November, the Democrats are going to spend the next 5 months savaging each other. If we are lucky, Hillary will file suit to attempt to force the party to seat her delegates from Michigan and Florida. Frantic political deal-making inside the convention will play against scenes of street violence from anti-war groups who don't feel that the Democrats are moving fast enough to scuttle the Iraq War. After four days of this (or if we get REALLY lucky, 8 or 9 or 10 days if there are enough deadlocked votes) the American Peepul (bless their stinky feet) are going to be so sick of all things Democratic that their ears will bleed upon mention of either Hillary or Barak.

And between 1 SEP and Election Day, all McCain will have to do is ask the country if that's what they want for the next four years. He'll play all the sound bites that the Democrats have obligingly compiled for him.

In Other News:

Badasses!

We have British Badasses. I wish to draw your attention to the sentence:

“My stomach was cut open, so I tucked my shirt in to keep it together and kept firing until more lads from the platoon arrived.”

That's badass.

We have an American Female Airborne Medic Badass.

"After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said."

Not quite as badass as tucking your intestines in your shirt and fighting on, but commendable non the less.

We have former Presidential Badasses.

Roosevelt received letters from army cavalrymen complaining about having to ride 25 miles a day for training and, in response, Teddy rode horseback for 100 miles, from sunrise to sunset, at 51 years old, effectively rescinding anyone's right to complain about anything, ever again.

While campaigning for a third term, Roosevelt was shot by a madman and, instead of treating the wound, delivered his campaign speech with the bleeding, undressed bullet hole in his chest.

I doubt Barak Obama, should he become elected President of the United States, would make even the top twenty in this list.

We have Danish Cartoonist Badasses. Not quite in the same category as fighting with your guts tucking into your shirt, but I still like anyone who will, in the face of death threats and crazed babbling from the Muslim world, publish anything that closes with,

"We reserve the right to not let ourselves be intimidated by people who meet verbal arguments with violence."

Not nearly as badass, but nearly as stressful as fighting with your innards in your tunic is being a general and commanding thousands of bad-asses. (Soon to be) GEN Odierno is moving on to ACoS. I remember when he was a 'lowly' division commander. Awww. . .

Journalism is not a profession one normally associates with badassery, but JD Johannes is the exception to the rule. Check out his film trailer. I'm planning to fix the link to his blog on the right, it seems to have gotten broken.

What's the opposite of a Badass?

A sniveling punk.

Let me share a couple with you.

A judge who would deny a 17 year old permission to enlist in the US Marine Corps is a sniveling punk.

This article highlights two sets of sniveling punks.

First, "Victims had drill holes in their bodies and deep gouges caused by blow torches." Anyone who would do that to a tied up helpless victim is a punk. Second, anyone who believes that this is somehow justified by America's actions or policy is also a punk.

Finally, Rurik makes the cogent argument that anyone who filed for Conscientious Objector status after enlisting in the Armed Forces is a sniveling punk. I'd modify that to argue that you should have the opportunity to do so free of consequence after you return from a deployment provided you fought honorably during your deployment. Other than that, you just defrauded the United States government and people out of monies for a service you are too cowardly to render.