BLACKFIVE

Listening To...

...the new Jimmy Eat World album "Futures" while trying to figure out a way to write about what's been in my head for the last few days.

Right now, "Kill" is my favorite song from Futures.  This album is more complicated than their others and it works well.  I've been a Jimmy fan for a few years and this is their best work.

It rocks in a quiet sort of way, building intensity as it moves towards the end.  Love it.

[Yeah, I know they are contributing to Moveon.org's compilation CD]

December 7th - Pearl, the 'stan, and Iraq

Never forget Pearl Harbor:  One, Two, and Three (the Donovan has many links for Pearl Harbor blog posts).

Always Remember This Day in Afghanistan:  When the first Afghan President elected by majority vote took an oath of office - One (WSJ) and Two (Reuters).  Plus, Sgt. Hook discusses his role in helping the Afghanis.

And what about Iraq?:  Arthur Chrenkoff has more and more good news from Iraq.

So, how do all of these stories and bloggers and essays fit together?

Sam Pender emails the essay below about the lessons of Pearl Harbor and how that attack and 9-11 are similiar.

December 7th Remembered or Forgotten - by Sam Pender

Why did the United States go to war with Germany in WWII? Those certainly weren't German Stukas and NAZI pilots over Pearl Harbor on December 7th. It was because Hitler supported Japan-not because they ever attacked us or had plans to do so. Pearl Harbor was specifically the result of a US oil embargo placed upon Japan as a result of the Japanese occupation of formerly French Indochina…an occupation permitted by the Germans who had recently conquered France and controlled its holdings-but the embargo was place upon Japan-not Germany. So, how did the United States interpret the 12/7 attacks as a final step into war with both Japan AND with Germany if Germany had nothing to do with 12/7?

"It is difficult to find a parallel to the unwisdom of the British and the weakness of the French Governments, who none the less reflected the opinion of their Parliaments in this disastrous period. Nor can the United States escape the censure of history. Absorbed in their own affairs and all the abounding interests, activities, and accidents of a free community, they simply gaped at the vast changes which were taking place in Europe and imagined they were none of their concern."
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

"By the autumn of 1933 it was plain that neither by precept nor still less by example would the British effort for disarmament succeed. The pacifism of the Labour and Liberal Parties was not effected even by the grave event of the German withdrawl from the League of Nations. Both continued in the name of peace to urge British disarmament, and anyone who differed was called “warmonger” and “scaremonger.” It appeared that their feeling was endorsed by the people, who of course did not understand what was unfolding."
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

    True, America’s allies were in trouble and asking the U.S. to help them, and a handful of Americans privately did before 1942 (see also Flying Tigers, Eagle Squadron, Hemmingway in Spain etc.). Another interesting aspect is to try and find a smoking gun in pre-Aunschlus Germany. It can't be done. There were violations, but nothing individually causing a war. Even Pearl Harbor was not the single reason for America's entry into WWII. No war should ever start for a single causus beli, and few do (including WWII, 911, and the war in Iraq).

"There was no moment in these sixteen years when the three former allies, or even Britain and France with their associates in Europe, could not in the name of the League of Nations and under its moral and international shield have controlled by mere effort of the will of armed strength of Germany."
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

"Until the middle of 1934 control of the events was still largely in the hands of His Majesty’s Government without the risk of war. They could at any time, in concert with France and through the League of Nations, have brought an overwhelming power to bear upon the Hitler Movement, about which Germany was profoundly divided."
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

    The United States went to war with Germany because Hitler declared war on the US (as had Saddam and Bin Laden both throughout the 1990’s), because Germany and Japan were allies (as were Saddam and Al Queda...see also 1998 indictment of UBL and the 1993 non-aggression agreement between them), and because there were repeated, close, high level TIES between Hitler and Japan (just as there were repeated, close, high level TIES between Saddam and Al Queda). Al Queda is not Japan, but it is a nation without borders (just not a nation-state after the fall of the Taliban).

"Don’t believe that anyone in the world will hinder me in my decisions [to invade Austria and Czechoslovakia]! Italy? I am quite clear that they are with Mussolini: with Italy I am on the closest of terms. England? England will not lift a finger for Austria…And France? Well, two years ago when we marched into the Rhineland with a handful of battalions [breaking the 1991 Treaty of Versailles]-at that moment I risked a great deal. If France had marched then we should have been forced to withdraw….but for France it is too late!"
-Adolph Hitler, 1938

    So, on December 11th, 1941, the United States went to war with Germany because Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. Germany had no knowledge or involvement in the 12/7 attacks, was not involved, but Hitler had a relationship with the Japanese, had declared war on the US, and hadn't followed the terms of the Versailles Treaty (ie, the WWI armistice agreement/cease-fire had been broken repeatedly by Hitler). Hitler didn't have an air force (the WMD of the day), but he had the capacity to build one rapidly-as most of Europe would find out by 1943. Following the declarations of war, the United States acted quickly to strike back at the Japanese with the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, and finally halting Japanese free reign of aggression in at the Battle of Midway just 6 months after Pearl Harbor (note: 6 months after the 9/11/01 attacks, the Taliban were routed, Bin Laden was driven from his safe haven and pinned down in the mts of Pakistan, and Afghanistan was already starting to rebuild).

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
-Edmund Burke

    So, where are the historians? Where is the generation that saw the right thing to do, AND had the courage to do it? Half of America has seen the right thing to do (specifically 51%), and has the courage to endure it. The other half prefers to ignore history, seek appeasement and isolationist policies, and to politicize the war on terror. Half the nation sees the history, and has learned from it. The other half continues to replace the cold realities of the 21st Century with political conspiracy theories piled upon each other as their own means of denial.
After a while, the conspiracies get harder and harder to grasp. Pres Bush (a man constantly painted as a moron by his political opponents) apparently stole the 2000 election by controlling 1/3 of the govt, the Supreme Court, and pulled off the greatest conspiracy in American history. THEN, this alleged Happy Meal-without-the-fries managed to pull off the greatest conspiracy in the history of man; he created the 911 attacks with the help of the Pakistanis who actually committed them using Saudi hijackers.

    Why? So he could invade Afghanistan to get access for the natural gas pipelines to fund his invasion of Iraq which he used to fund his 2004 theft of the Presidential election. One conspiracy alone is tough to realistically put faith in, but for President Bush (purportedly the dullest knife in the drawer) to have pulled off 4 of the greatest conspiracies in the history of man (each one dependent on its predecessor) is just impossible.  With four successive coups the odds become exponentially smaller and smaller; 4 of the greatest in mankind?  Millions of people are grasping at straws in denial, and there's another 4 years yet to start.  Why do they grasp?  What DON'T they grasp?

    Given the hundreds of thousands of people who have looked into each one of these conspiracies, the independent, foreign, and bi-partisan investigations that have disproved them, the reason that people still cling to them can only be described as political denial, as historical denial, and as proof positive that those who have ignored the lessons in their history classes truly have been doomed to repeat them.

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of NAZI rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight in the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air; we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender; and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old." ie, "Bring em on"
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

"Let's Remember Pearl Harbor" was America's battle-cry on 12/8/41....maybe it should be once again?

Despite the ACLU, That Holiday Feeling Is In The Air

I missed part of the Army-Navy Game yesterday because my town has a Christmas Walk - where Santa arrives on a Fire Department Engine, reindeer are present, the town Christmas Tree is lit by the mayor, and all of the stores are open with treats for adults and kids alike.  It was pretty cool.  And I couldn't believe that city hall can actually get away with calling it a "Christmas" Walk - especially with the ACLU and PC police. 

Right now, my son believes two things that he won't believe a few years from now -  (1) That Santa Claus is real and coming to town and (2) that I am his biggest hero in the world.  I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts, and I am glad that my town isn't afraid to have a ChristmasWalk.

Here is a picture of my son meeting the very real Donner - you know, the one that pulls Santa's sleigh.  My favorite pub in town had Donner and Dasher in the back Bier Garten.  Talk about the best of both worlds - taking my son's picture with a Reindeer one minute, enjoying a Kristal Weiss the next.

HALO 2

With the Frau und kinder out of town this week, I have had time to finish HALO 2.

GREAT GAME!!!

Without giving much away, it was fun and it seemed too short.  But after finishing it and looking back at the different chapters you can select, it is a reasonably long (enough) game.

The problem is the *ahem* ending.  I think I actually yelled, "No @#$%ing way!"  It's that abrupt and it's not really an ending.

However, the rest of the game is very, very cool.  The Marines are righteous and hilarious.  I fell off of the couch laughing when I was driving the Warthog and the Marine gunner in back yells out, "Where did you learn how to drive, Mexico City?"

The best part is Sergeant Major Johnson and his one liners:

"Now, don't make me take off my belt!" - gearing up for a fight.

When Cortana says "the mesage just keeps repeating.......'regret, regret, regret' any idea what it means?"  Sergeant Major Johnson replies, "Dear Humanity, we regret being alien bastards, we regret coming to earth, and we most certainly regret the Corps destroying our raggedy ass fleet!"

"Vindi, vindi, we kicked your ass!" - after wiping out a bunch of aliens.

"Hey! Bastards! Knock, knock!" - as he blasts open the door.

"Marines, did I give you permission to Bitch?!"

"You're uglier than my mother-in-law!" - shooting an alien.

"Your eyes say no, but my gun says yes, yes, yes!" - shooting an alien.


"Be happy, Marine! When I joined the Corps we didn't have any fancy tanks. We had two sticks, and a rock, and we had to share the rock with the entire platoon!"


"How ya feelin' there, Jackass?!" - after killing an alien.


"Ok, they're in standard formation - little bastards in front, big ones in back."

Now, I'll have to wait for the new Knights of the Old Republic (due out in a few days).  And then there'll be WWII Paratroopers and another Medal of Honor for XBox sometime next year.

Patrick Daley and Some Admin Notes

I'm about two hundred messages behind in my email scanning.  By the looks of it, about fifty or so are about Chicago Mayor Daley's son enlisting in the Army to be a paratrooper.  That story has been in every newspaper and top news story on tv for the last few days.

My first thought was, Cool.  Another Chicago Irish Paratrooper - somebody call Michael Moore (politician's son enlisting as a paratrooper).

Then, So what.  The kid quit West Point so who knows if he can hack being a paratrooper.

Then, But he's got a pair.  Daddy's reach is long, but not long enough to reach to Iraq or Afghanistan. And the Army won't care who his dad and uncle are...

Then, Matty, stop being such a judgemental @#$%.  Just be glad that we have people enlisting during a war.

Anyway, I've been busy lately and hope to catch up on the email and the posting later.

Update:  Just an FYI, Patrick is a Republican and supported George Bush (most Chicagoans know about this).  There's a lot of buzz about how Patrick represents hope for the Democratic Party.  Sorry, but he's not a Democrat...at least not one this year.

Update 2:  Linda B. thinks that I'm going to be all washed up as there will now be another Irish Paratrooper from Chicago.  That SOB will probably have a blog, too.

At least my dad isn't the mayor.

So, I've got that going for me.

Which is nice.

SI Sportsman of the Year - Vote For Ranger Pat Tillman

Patrick M. sends the link to Sports Illustrated's fan poll for Sportsman of the Year.

Background:  Sports Illustrated is conducting it's annual fan poll for Sportsman of the Year.  This year there is one athlete who stands out.  Tim Layden of CNN/Sports Illustrated lays it out for you.

I'd appreciate it if you took some time to go here to vote, select Pat Tillman on the sliding window on the left of the site (he's second from the bottom and wearing a red football jersey), click on his picture, then hit the vote button.  Just in case you have trouble finding his picture, here is a screenshot of what Pat Tillman's ballot looks like.

Currently, he is in third place behind Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps.

Update:  Sondra K. says that she can't think of a more worthy person.  I agree. 

[Note:  You can vote more than once - just refresh the web page]

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday, the Midwest got clobbered with a snow storm.  We only received a couple of inches here, but it was enough to cover the trees on my street.  Below is the picture that I took while looking out of our living room window - I was contemplating shoveling the driveway versus waiting for the snow to melt.

I Don't Watch TV Very Often...

...but I am a Amazing Race fanatic.  It starts tonight (8PM CST) with a two hour premiere.

Honestly, I tried to get my wife to allow me and my father-in-law or my friend, Phil, to apply to run the race.  But three to four weeks is a long time to be away from home - even for one meeelion dollars.

Fallujah - Time For "Spiritual Warfare"

I've gotten quite a few emails about Fallujah.  I haven't posted anything because I've been really, really busy.  Well, I also have a very good friend going in.  I'm not really a very religious guy, but, while our aircraft and artillery have been "preparing" the battlefield, I've been praying a lot for him and the Soldiers, Marines and Iraqi soldiers that will make the assault on Fallujah.

It  will be a tough job - there will be plenty of IEDs, boobytraps (probably hundreds/thousands), and enemy snipers...let alone bad guys that need killin'.  Military Operations in Urban Terrain are very tough, slow, and tiring.

Those of us not in the fight need to conduct "Spiritual Warfare".

Get to it.

Happy Halloween 2004 - Part 1

I changed the picture to a thumbnail to improve page load speed. Click on the thumbnail for the full picture. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Sosa Should Scram

As a lifelong Cubs fan, I have a hard time being tough on the team. However, I am one of the few that have thought for a long, long time that Sosa should go.

A lot of my friends think that getting rid of Sosa would lose the Cubs home runs. A lot of my friends think that I am crazy, and that Sammy has been one of the lynch-pins keeping their play-off hopes alive.

Have you ever seen Sammy Sosa really hustle after hitting a grounder? I have...maybe twice in the last four years. He's a made a few good plays this year, but only a few. He's a prima donna in an organization that is supposed to be made up of scrappers. The Cubs are not the Yankees. Never have been and never will be.

And, now, more proof of what Sammy Sosa really is...an arrogant, pouty @#$%.

Sosa sittin' on the dock of the pay
BY MIKE KILEY Staff Reporter

Sammy Sosa has been docked a day's pay for failing to remain at Wrigley Field for the Cubs' season finale Sunday against Atlanta.

General manager Jim Hendry faxed a formal letter Wednesday to Adam Katz, Sosa's agent, and also sent a letter to Sosa's offseason address informing the sulking slugger that he must pay roughly $87,400 for leaving the ballpark during the game without permission.

''The action Sammy took was indefensible, and I feel this is an appropriate fine,'' Hendry said. ''He should have been willing to stay with his teammates and dress in his uniform like everyone else did. He just shouldn't have left. There is no way to defend it.''...

Time for Sammy to go...no team needs a player that won't stick it out the whole season.

I won't miss him.

OUTRAGE - Part 2

John G. sends this article from the Washington Times about Jack Daniel's watering down Old No. 7.

..."We were just doing what we think most of our friends and customers wanted," said Roger Brashears, who has worked at Jack Daniel's in Lynchburg since the 1960s. "Our quality control is very scientific. It comes down to how it tastes."

The company touts Old No. 7 as "a simple reminder that some things just never change. And shouldn't. This is the old-time whiskey made as our fathers made it."

The uproar was started by a few whiskey drinkers who say Jack should stick to that promise. An online petition asking the company to switch back has gathered about 700 signatures...

Hopefully, some of those signatures were from you all.

It's an OUTRAGE!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

John G. sends this article from Modern Drunkard about Jack Daniels deciding to lower the alcohol content of Old No. 7.

Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 is a simple reminder that some things just never change. And shouldn’t. This is the old-time whiskey made as our fathers made it. Remaining true to Jack Daniel’s original recipe and charcoal-mellowed character means folks today enjoy the same sipping whiskey awarded seven international gold medals.

So says Jack's Daniel's web site. Rather inspiring, isn't it? Such noble sentiments should warm the cockles of the most cynical drunkard's heart.

Unfortunately, not a word of it is true. For the second time since the Brown-Forman Corporation acquired the distillery in 1956, they have lowered the proof of Jack Daniel's Black Label Tennessee Whiskey. Fifteen years ago they dropped its original 90 proof to 86, and very recently, and might I saw with zero fanfare, they degraded it to 80 proof...

Included in the article is a link to sign a petition in protest of degrading Old No. 7 any further. Read the article to see how the PC Police can get at anything - even whiskey. It's a travesty. This is at least as important as RatherGate.

[No animals were hurt in the production of this post]

The Duh-bate

Since I'll be up taking care of my daughter, I'll be watching the debate but not able to dip into the scotch.

I wish I could take part in Mama Montezz's Debate Drinking Game (she's one of my favorite writers, too)...

Number 5. Anytime Kerry attempts a joke or takes a stab at humor, for which humor will probably file charges for attempted murder.

If You Are Relatively New To Blackfive...

...then you might want to read these posts:

1. Taking Chance Home

2. Mathew Schram's Memorial Day

3. Alzheimer's

4. The Warrior Caste

5. Someone You Should Know (series)

6. Bonds That Shall Not Be Broken (series)

7. Saving Specialist Gray

8. The Sixtieth Anniversary of D-Day (dozens of bloggers participate in the anniversary with information about D-Day that you may not have read about before)

Finally, I usually post letters from friends in Iraq or the 'stan in the Military Stuff Category. I'm thinking of creating a Letters from the Battlefield category to separate them out from all of the other stuff. You have scroll through lots of military-related posts to find them. There's a few per week.

Thanks for stopping by.

Update: Bill reminds me of this post - All Things French - Blackfive's Encounter With a French General - that, aside from a Search and Rescue mission, is what I am best known for in the Army.

Thank You

...to all those who sent suggestions about New Orleans. I appreciate it.

Nick was absolutely correct about the D-Day Museum.

Thanks to Toni for the tip about Jacques-Imo's. Great Place.

Thanks to Robert Prather and T - My team (26 of us) ended up selecting Arnaud's to have dinner one night. Didn't know that they had a ghost museum upstairs. Had a great ribeye there.

Mr. Green was correct about Acme Oyster Co. - it turned out to be my favorite spot for lunch or a sneak-out-of-conference-for-a-quick-drink-and-appetizer place. Then again, Big Money Green knows me, well. Good food, fast, with a good beer list (liking the Abita Light and the Black Voodoo).

Thanks to Chase - I hung out in both the Cat's Meow (closed the place three nights and that's where I got into trouble) and John Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop (sat at the piano bar for hours one night). My pal Roger had the Cat's Meow rocking with a Rick James wig and guitar jamming Sweet Home Alabama. Good times, good times.

St. Louis on Sunday. Next stop after that, Canada. I'll be in Vancouver in two weeks.

Heading Home

On the way back to Chicago, tired from last night in New Orleans (bad ghost tour, but later we found a great jazz place). Here's a few things to check out:

1. A Lance Corporal from Camp Lejeune sends this artwork demonstrating respect for our fallen heroes. He thought you would like it.

2. Winds of Change is attempting to help some Canadians send aid supplies to Afghanistan. They are looking for suggestions.

Project Mercury Hope is similar to Chief Wiggles' Iraqi efforts. Master Corporal Storring is a Canadian Soldier who was deployed with the ISAF Peacekeeping force near Kabul. Mercury Hope is his effort to mobilize civilians to help the soldiers help the orphans of Afghanistan.

3. Chris M. sends this great link about Iraqi Little League Baseball via the Big Red One.

4. Arthur Chrenkoff has the fourth installment in his good news from Afghanistan series.

New Orleans Update

Amazingly, I was actually on the balcony of Napolean House last night...legitimately, too (cocktail party). Talk about Irony...One of the ladies took my picture on the balcony so I'll post it after she gets it developed.

No, I didn't jump because there was panel truck below. Everybody knows that it's better to jump on a mini-van or car than a panel truck - those things hurt!

Spent a few hours in the ER last night with my pals, Roger and Joe. Nurse Frank Stively took good care of Roger after an accident during a karoke show (broken nose - long story). Sorry for the threats, Frank...just wanted to make sure Roger was in good hands. Everybody is okay. In fact, Roger is raring to go, again. Haven't had to use the bond card, yet.

Arggh! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Ahoy! Scowlin' Blackfive, here!!!

T'is morn brings us International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arghh!!!!

It be only appropriate tha' I'm in a Pirate City - N'Orleans. A beauty for t' takin'.

So AVAST ye over t' MilBlogs and be ready to board and gut that blackhearted devil, John O'Flipper Kerry.

If ye lubbers don't have a good pirate moniker, avast ye here.

Hurricane Blackfive Hits New Orleans

Or should it be "New Orleans' Hurricanes Hit Blackfive"...?

BTW, Acme Oyster Co. was a great suggestion. Fast, cheap, delicious food. I'm going to have a few Po' Boys from Acme before heading home.

Had to take a friend of mine to O'Brien's for Hurricanes since it was his first time here.

(Lunch break's over, gotta get back to work, more later)

Hurrican Blackfive to Hit New Orleans - Imminent

Hi All-

I'm on my way to New Orleans. Thanks for stopping by.

I would like to thank everyone for the tips on where to go for food and drink, etc., while I'm in NO. I haven't been there since 1995 and am really looking forward to it. I'll be working most of the time during the day, and I'll have a bit of time for the blog in between drinks and getting into trouble...So, if you hear about a drunken Paratrooper doing Parachute Landing Falls off of the Napolean House balcony the while yelling "John Kerry can kiss my military @SS!!!"...well, that'd be me.

I'll probably have some pictures for tomorrow's posts.

Have a great day!

Borders Responds to Reader

In response to this, Lou V. sent an email to Borders and this was the response he received:

09/16/2004

Dear Lou:

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns about postings at www.bordersunion.org .

First, I'd like to stress that as a company, Borders is absolutely apolitical. We take no stance whatsoever, and for over 30 years we have been committed to our customers' right to choose what to read and what to buy. Our stores are highly regarded for featuring a very deep and diverse selection of titles in hundreds of subject areas--including politics--representing a wide range of thought.

We take great measures to communicate this on an ongoing basis to employees and to emphasize the importance of not expressing political viewpoints while working in our stores. In fact, Vin Altruda, the President of Borders Stores Worldwide, has personally communicated strongly to all employees that it is not appropriate to share their personal political viewpoints in any way while at work- through conversations with other employees or customers, by wearing T-shirts or buttons of a political nature, or by taking any actions to express a political viewpoint.

That said, with more than 32,000 employees worldwide, it is challenging to manage the actions of each individual. And of course we cannot control what employees say or do on their own time outside of working in our stores. This includes posting their thoughts on websites that are not associated with our company. It is important to note that the site you've referred to is not accessible to our employees at work, nor are any of the statements on it a reflection of our company policy.

Of course, we realize that this particular posting is claiming that an employee has taken actions of a political nature while on the job. At the current time we have no evidence that any inventory in our stores has been diverted or destroyed by an employee. I assure you that this type of behavior would not be tolerated under any circumstances. Should we become aware of specific actions and can verify that a specific individual has indeed taken these actions, we will certainly take appropriate disciplinary action.

On the subject of the book "Unfit for Command", it is in Borders stores and continues to be a top-seller. The publisher of this particular book underestimated the popularity of the title and therefore did not print enough copies to meet the initial consumer demand. Although it has been challenging for Borders to secure a continuous supply of this book, we are working with the publisher to meet ongoing demand and are doing our best to assure that our stores have appropriate quantities in stock (please see the attached news article regarding this issue).

I hope this has addressed your concerns. Thank you once again for sharing your thoughts with us.

Best,

Dan
Customer Care Rep

Well, I'm glad someone at Borders responded and thanks to Lou for sending the email.

I haven't received one back from my inquiry, yet.

And Tony the Oriental Redneck points out that the Borders Union is blaming a troll for the whole controversy. Um, sure, Mr. Borders Union Guy.

Dubya's DVD Collection

In a thread over at IMAO a few months ago, I stated that Big Trouble In Little China was George Bush's favorite movie (HEHE!).

So here's what I think are the President's Top Ten:

1. Big Trouble in Little China (Special Edition)
2. Men At Work
3. Army of Darkness (Boomstick Edition) (1993)
4. Animal House (Double Secret Probation Edition)
5. Commando
6. Ronin
7. Caddyshack
8. Tombstone
9. The Usual Suspects
10. Hard Boiled

What do think he's got in his DVD cabinet?

Sad Day - Listening To...

The Ramones - Pet Cemetary, Rock N Roll High School and I Want To Be Sedated

Godspeed Johnny.

Belmont Club

While I've posted disagreements with some things there (mainly about Fallujah), I think the world of Belmont Club. It's one of my must-reads every day.

How the hell I ever got on Wretchard's blogroll, I'll never guess...

Message to Ivan - "Please Head Towards Mexico"

Update 4pm: Note to Frank J. - please head to New Jersey (see comments for explanation).

Just being selfish as I was supposed to be in New Orleans later this week. Now, according to the latest strike predictions, that doesn't seem like a fun place to be...although, if you have to be in a freakin' Hurricane, Bourbon Street would be a mighty fine place to wait it out...wouldn't it?

Maybe Not.

Decided to listen to some Zydeco...Listening to...

Rockin' Dopsie & the Zydeco Twisters - Lafayette Two Step (music samples at link)

And now, cher, list'nin to Beau Jocque - Don't Tell Your Mamma

Damn that Ivan! I was really looking forward to a Sazerac...

The Things You Learn At 4am

...while feeding Gracie last night at about 4am, I discovered that MTV actually plays videos. I saw two!

September 11th, 2004 - Part 1

...if you can read just one post, it should be this. I know someone who owes their life to Rick Rescorla.

This is also very remarkable - here's what Stephen Green said last year. Over the last twelve months, I've thought about that post a lot (which is why I knew how to find it).

And I won't forget Tim Green and the other first responders...not ever.

Waiting for HALO 2?

Boo-Yah!!!

Some improvements over HALO are:

...You can now wield two hand weapons, although you lose the ability to throw grenades if you do so. Grabbing a second gun is easy - you just go to it and hit the Y button.

The rocket launcher has been improved to track targets - when the reticle turns red, you're locked on - while some Covenant weapons that had little teeth in the original game have been given more of a sting.

Transport has also been upgraded. Warthogs and Ghosts have both been given some new muscle thanks to a turbo boost. They can take more damage and more pieces will fall off under fire.

If you take a hit, get out quickly. A secondary explosion is bound to follow.

Plus you can board an enemy vehicle - if you time it...

Just two more months...

[Thanks to Steven DV for the link!]

Listening To...

Velvet Revolver - Slither.

It's Guns-N-Roses, Stone Temple Pilots and the Cult wrapped up into one interesting sound. It's good to hear them today as I'm trying to get going after a three-day weekend and a long night with the baby.

Wonder if Miss Apropos is a fan? Probably.

Hey, speaking of late nights with the baby, I've been getting to know late night TV well. I saw the Cure on Jimmy Kimmel last night. Keeping in mind that it was late, the new album sounded great.

How to Break Curses

I was born in Manhattan. When I was two, we moved to Boston. Then, when I was seven we moved to Chicago. I have always loved the Yankees, Cubs, and Red Sox. There is an order, however, to my adoration of the teams based on the reverse locations of where I lived. It usually only happens if they play each other and I absolutely have to make a choice. Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees. If the Cubs play either team, I'm for the Cubbies. If the Red Sox play the Yankees, I'm for the Sox (I know this won't make die-hard Sox fans happy).

Both the Cubs and Red Sox have been under curses for many, many decades. The Red Sox Curse may be over.

First, a bit of background for the uninitiated...The Boston Red Sox traded away Babe Ruth ("the Bambino") to the New York Yankees in 1920. The Red Sox had won 5 championships. Once the Yankees got a hold of Babe Ruth, they won a ton of championships.

However, since the trade, Boston has been in only four championships in 83 years, losing every one of them in the seventh and last game of the series.

About 14 years ago, Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe coined the term - "The Curse Of the Bambino". And now it seems the 83 year-old curse may have been lifted.

Sixteen year-old Lee Galvin was at the game in section 9 at Fenway. Manny Ramirez hit by a foul ball toward Galvin. The foul slid past the "Pesky Pole" and Galvin put up his arms to catch it. The ball flew through his hands and smacked him right in the mouth. He had his front teeth knocked out by the ball.

How does this lift the Curse of the Bambino, you ask?

Because Lee Galvin lives in Babe Ruth's house in Sudburry! This happened the same night that the Yankees suffered their biggest defeat in history - 22 to 0 by the Cleveland Indians.

Yea! The Curse is lifted*...much rejoicing.

Now, if we can do something about that damned goat!

*Note: I don't really believe in curses. While interesting to talk about, the curses are just excuses for having teams that perpetually suck.

I Must Be In The Right Place

On my way home from work, I stopped by the largest Borders in the area. I need a new book.

On the door and on every info desk was the sign,

"Unfit for Command is sold out. Be the first to receive the Best Seller by ordering now."

Hugh Hewitt's book - If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It - was also out.

Michelle Malkin's In Defense of Internment had three copies left of her latest book.

Maureen Dowd had a ton and no one was reading them.

James Carrol had a bunch that no one was reading, either.

Tommy Franks - American Soldier - was there in the dozens, and people were picking them up and reading them.

I think I moved to the right town.

Discussion About Sponsors

My sponsors - a subject I really have never touched - need a bit of description. I thought I had better say something in the interests of transparency/full disclosure (ala Phil Carter). First, the money from the sponsors goes toward the upkeep of the site. Whatever's left, I donate to Soldiers' Angels or other organizations that support military people. I won't donate proceeds to politically motivated orgs. So you are not really lining my pockets (but may be giving me a tax break when I claim the donations) by visiting these sponsors. I thought you should know who gets the donations. If you support that and/or like the products, click through and check out the sponsors.

At the top, Right Wing Stuff has held the top spot (in order of how long the ad has stayed here) for most of the months that I've been advertising. They have some great products. Actually, this one had me laughing and is my favorite slogan from Right Wing Stuff.

Next is Hot Sauce. Now, Hot Sauce has caused a bit of a controversy for me. There's a few local Christian radio stations in Michigan that would occasionally talk about my blog...that is until I posted the Hot Sauce ad. Also, I received a few emails from gentlemen who told me that their wives won't let them read my blog because of the ad. Seriously. Granted, Hot Sauce has a model in a bikini for it's ad because Hot Sauce features model interviews and has pictures of the models being interviewed and that offends some people. There's no nudity but some provocative posing there. It's a male-oriented site definitely, but everyone really should check the site out. Hot Sauce has some really cool interviews with musicians, too, like Rachel Yamagata - a Chicago sensation - and other topics like sports and cars.

Then there's the wonderful VRWC. Their latest shirt claims that flip-flops are for feet...

Next, the indomitable Tony Blair has a tribute site - Thank You Tony. Talk about friends, we've none better than the Brits, along with the Poles, the Aussies, the El Sals, the Italians, etc. At this site, you can post a thank you to Mr. Blair for his support against terrorism. The messages get printed and shipped weekly to the PMs office on Downing Street. So far, over 46,000 of you have sent him a thank you. That's pretty darn cool.

Finally, JC T-Shirts has three different designs that will definitely stir up conversation wherever you are...Check them out. I have the Hegemony shirt. I like the cog, too. Might send that one to a few friends in the Pentagon.

I do have Google Ads (which don't seem to really work for me - that means no $ yet) and a link to Amazon where I build up credits for purchases made from clicking through Blackfive. So far, I've gotten about $16 from that and I used it to pay for part of Hugh Hewitt's book - If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It.

I do get free books from publishers every once in awhile. I bought Hugh's book and I bought Unfit for Command.

There are also two text ads that currently advertise on-line poker and texas hold 'em.

So there you have it.

I'm Back

Okay, DSL on? - check!

10am Guinness? - check! (still working around the new house)

Baby Gracie sleeping? - check!

Figured out the sprinkler system? - check!

Met the neighbors? - check!

Kerry still flip-flopping? - check! (needs another shot of botox, don't you think?)

Sadr still flip-flopping? - check! (will someone just shoot the bastard?)

McGreevey still gay? - check! (I don't care that he's gay. He cheated on his wife. He's corrupt. He's a jerk.)

Scott Peterson still guilty? - check! (zzzzz...)

Oprah on a jury? - who gives a @#$%!

Doesn't look like I missed that much. Thanks for visiting Blackfive even though I wasn't here for a few days!

Blackfive on the Move

I'll be in New Orleans and Vancouver (Canada) over the next month or two. Any good restaurant recommendations? I know Mr. Green scouted New Orleans earlier this year...

It's for work, but I should have some time for play (i.e. Pubs, pubs, pubs), too. So if you know of some good places to eat and *ahem* drink, please email me. Same goes if you want to get a drink from me...

I'll be in St. Louis and maybe Kansas City, Mo, later this year. Then Vegas in January.

Hurricane Charley - How To Help

Tammi is blogging the aftermath of Charley...and there are more storms on the way.

She also provides links and phone number for the Red Cross and asks that you donate money rather than goods for the Floridians hit by Charley.

My family in Florida is okay and our house on Estero Island is not too bad...others were not so lucky.

Listening to...

Taking Back Sunday - "Your Own Disaster" and "Cute Without the E" and the rest of their two albums.

If you like Blink 182 and other emo and punk influenced bands, you'll like them.

They rock!

Cool Rumor

Halo 2 - August 24th! (Not November...)

BOOYAH!!!

Apologies

No, I didn't abandon the blogosphere or join the Foreign Legion or the latest Frank J. Worship Cult...

No, the site wasn't hijacked...at least, not by Al Qaeda or John Kerry as some have suggested via email. LOL, guys.

Nope, my domain registrar changed how they map domains. The registrar also has a policy to put up a construction page when there is a conflict with the account. So, when I tried to change the mapping back to the way I wanted it, they zapped me with a Under Construction Page.

Still working on the t-shirt idea. Thanks to all for their submissions. I'll post those sometime soon so you can see their work/ideas.

Thanks to Evil Rasheeb for helping me out with this one.

Keep Your Mouth Closed When Looking Up At Architecture

If you ever make it to Chicago, one tour that I recommend is the Chicago Architecture Foundation's "Architecture River Cruise". It's really a great way to experience Chicago by way of the Chicago river instead of the busy, noisy streets.

However, I would recommend keeping your mouth closed as you view the magnificient skyscrapers.

River Tour Interrupted By 'Human Waste' WMAQ-TV

CHICAGO - An architecture tour along the Chicago River turned ugly as 120 passengers aboard a yacht were bombarded with human waste. The waste was released from a "large black coach bus," as it crossed the bridge at 430 W. Grand Av. and "kept on driving" around 1:20 p.m. Sunday, police News Affairs Officer Alice Casanova said.

Five people were taken from yacht Chicago Little Lady to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, treated and released, Casanova said. They were treated for exposure to E. coli and other forms of bacteria, she added...

Help Requested

Admist all that's going on with me right now (baby last week, moving next week), I am trying to get a Blackfive T-Shirt put together.

100% of the profit from the Blackfive t-shirt will go to our wounded Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen via Soldiers' Angels.

However, I need some great designs to make the biggest impact. Anyone wanting to take part in a design effort, please email me. Any suggestions about recognition for the design would also be appreciated.

Here's one idea from my friend Danny - the front would say "blackfive.net" and would have a graphic behind the url. The back would say something like "Ordinary Americans Supporting Extraordinary Heroes".

Thoughts?

Listening To...

The Lost Prophets - Last Train Home...that and a quad shot latte is keeping me going right now.

Back to the baby!

B-Day, err, Baby D-Day

By the time you've read this, my daughter has probably arrived.

Gotta go.

Pictures Tuesday...wait 'till you see what t-shirt I'm wearing in the delivery room...

Have a great day!

Update 08-03-04: Picture and name are here.

The Inventor of the Internet...

...was knighted today by Queen Elizabeth.

And, no, it wasn't Al Gore.

Blog Hiatus Siesta

Just a blog alert that I won't be posting much for a few days.

No, the Mrs. and I do not have a little girl, yet. She's being stubborn. Very stubborn (*lowers voice* like her mom). We have had a million false alarms so far.

I am actually out of town at my company's annual leadership conference. I'll be spending about 16 to 18 hours each day with various VPs and Board members so I won't have time to blog. While I usually don't need much sleep, I'm also leading some of the sessions so I won't be blogging all night long in order to be somewhat coherent during my pleas for more personnel and capital lectures-so-boring-that-I-wish-I-was-conducting-an-Airborne-Assault-right-now!!! powerpoint-freakin'-deathmarches reports and presentations. Ahhh, how the mighty have fallen...chained to spreadsheets and freakin' TPS reports (yeah, I've got the damn memo!).

There will be some preprogrammed posts today but that'll be it for a few days. Visit the great blogs on my blogroll, check out the MilBlogs or see the New Showcase.

Have a great week. See you on Friday.

Thursday Foray

Frank J. has a letter from a Marine in Iraq on the Fourth - it's a great read. Not your usual Frank J. post (more like your usual Blackfive post....hhhmmm...HEY!). It's going to be Frank's blogiversary on Friday the 9th - that's tomorrow, people. All bloggers should link to their favorite IMAO post.

I should also mention that, since his first blogiversary went un-noticed by a certain Law Professor and caused the Great Blog War of 2003, a certain Law Professor might want to take note of IMAO's SECOND BLOGIVERSARY! The first salvo was launched by yours truly (and the second, too, come to think about it), and I must say that my photoshop skilz have only gotten better...

Arthur Chrenkoff has the latest Good News From Iraq (#5) up and ready for your viewing.

Nick S. sends this story about Professional Baseball Player Keith Foulke being prevented from pinning a small American flag to his baseball cap. Read what the League (Bud Selig) offered him if he continued to wear it.

Based on the above, maybe Michele is right - we're heading towards another 1968. By the way, I agree with Smash that I want to keep the comments alive and well on this blog. Heck, the comments are the best part.

How about some laughs? Feste at Fool's Blog has a picture of Dos Juans...and Justin at Right Side Redux has the latest Billboard Chart For Liberal Senators. Also, go to American Digest and just scroll down - Vanderlun's latest posts made me laugh more than a few times.

If you haven't read Belmont Club's post on the Return of the Dreadnought, you should go check it out - even you non-Navy folks.

Speaking of Navy folks, John Moore of Useful Fools asks for help with Vietnam Veterans For Truth. John is always well reasoned and even-keeled (no pun intended - John's a former Sailor). He wants your help in spreading the word about John Kerry's lies and the efforts of the media to conceal them - and, of course, John Moore has proof. Check it out.

Donnie has a post about the French offer to protect Europe within it's Nuclear umbrella...and he can't stop laughing. The country that thinks Jerry Lewis is a genius is going to protect the country that thinks David Hasselhof can sing...and second or third best military in the world? Sure. At DisneyWORLD...

Ideas Needed For Media Distribution

I have a ton of videos and pictures - some are Official Army Videos/Pictures - that I would like to store and have available to you all. There's the humorous stuff, too, like my Triumph the Insult Comic Dog collection (along with various other things like SNL stuff). No porn - sorry Harv and Michael.

So, I need a cheap host where I can get a lot of storage and bandwidth (some of the files are large and will use up tons of bandwidth). I've seen some hosts offer deals with 60GB of bandwith (1$/GB/Month). While I don't need a control panel/interface, I'd rather have one.

Ideas?

Update: I'd like to be able to use Pay Pal to pay for it. That's where my BlogAd revenues go (and what I would use some of the revenues for...)

Commenting Problems?

Apparently, there is a problem with commenting here - even I get the "Questionable Comment" error message. I've sent a help ticket to Typepad and they're working on the problem.

I didn't shut down comments or ban anyone recently from commenting.

Baby Names

My wife and I have a name for our soon-to-be-born daughter (several, in fact). Today, I thought, OMG, she's probably going to be born on the fourth.

So if my daughter arrives on the 4th, are there any really cool (Independence Day related) names that I could convince my wife to name the girl...?

Ideas?

Advice

Need some advice, people. First, books:

I read a new book about every two weeks. So, I'm definitely going to buy Michelle Malkin's book on immigration (and/or lack thereof), but I was thinking about getting the Rule of Four. Anyone read that one, yet?

I finally got my wife to read some CS Lewis, but now that we're talking about his views on Christianity, I need to go back and re-read Mere Christianity.

Video Games (I have XBox and GameCube):

Full Spectrum Warrior?

I tried Red Dead Revolver and liked the genre but didn't like the linear gameplay. The novelty of the spaghetti western video game wore off after a few two hour sessions.

Castle Wolfenstein?

Economy Indicator - Shopping Mall Metrics(?)

Today, I became a godfather. My brother's son was baptized today at a church in Batavia, Illinois. I love being a godfather...it's like being the best uncle. My nephew will get his first drum set from me - probably next year ;->.

Anyway, there's an outlet mall on the way back to Chicago. We decided to stop at about 3PM CST. We drove around for 25 minutes trying to find a parking spot. There were absolutely no parking spaces. In fact, there was a quarter mile long line from the expressway to get to the mall.

So much for the soft economy.

Chicago's Un-Civil War

I'm Ferris Bueller today...

I'll be at the Cubs-White Sox Crosstown Classic this afternoon. The "Classic" didn't used to mean much before the interleague play, but, now, there's a lot at stake. Both teams are doing well.

I'm a big Cubs fan. I'm a Sox fan, too, except when they play the Cubs. In case you didn't see it the last time that I posted it, here's the difference between games at the Cell and Wrigley.

Go Cubs!!!

See you after the game...

Do You Love Music?

Sure you do. I saw this site featured today on WGN Morning News.

It's called Music Plasma - The Music Visual Search Engine and it's very, very cool.

For instance, type in Coldplay (one of my favorites) for a Search of similiar bands, and Music Plasma creates a spherical universe of music.

The closer the bands are to Coldplay, the more similiar their music styles will be. For instance, Radiohead is pretty close to Coldplay. Obviously, the bands are grouped by music type (Rock, Folk, Alternative, etc.).

The size of the halo (representing a band) indicates popularity.

Give it a try to find a band that you might really like. I just punched in Ride (one of my favorites from Oxford) and now have some groups that I hadn't heard of before that I'll give a listen to...

Dodgeball Mania!

No, I have not yet seen the Dodgeball movie, but I will soon, maybe this weekend. If you go to the Dodgeball movie site, there are games to play, and audio clips to hear.

I liked the Old School Site better because there's a Frank The Tank Streaking Game on it. You, as the wonderful Frank, streak through the cafeteria and try to avoid the campus police - I think he's looking for a KFC...

Anyway, back to dodgeball, the Game Show Network is going to start broadcasting dodgeball games at 9PM CST.

And, BTW, the Amazing Race - my favorite show on TV - starts July 6th. I was going to enter with my father-in-law or my friend Phil (think Frank The Tank) until my wife found out that the race was at least three weeks long.

Blackfive Blogiversary!!!

Blackfive is one year old today!!! It's been a great year. I've been able to meet some great bloggers, make new friends, and put the spotlight on some of the best people this country has to offer.

My wife still wants to know when I'll make money at blogging. I think that, if that would happen, I would have to change how my "voice" is delivered. When you are paid to do something, then it becomes work. This is more like a mission for me. Maybe it will change, but right now it's both fun and satisfying. John Hawkins thinks blogging will only get bigger, better, and more lucrative, and it would be very cool if he is right.

First, I need to say thanks to a few people:

To Frank J. - Thanks for being the first to link to Blackfive! IMAO was the first blog that I read every day. I would write something funny here but that's your gig, Frank. And don't try to hug me...

To Bill Whittle - Thank you for your wonderful essays. I'll never forget the day a friend of mine said, "Have you read History at EjectEjectEject?". I remember reading the comments and thinking that I've just stumbled across some of the smartest people in the universe (G.H.S. is one of them). Inspiration for a lot of content here is from you.

To Glenn Reynolds - Thanks for all of the support of MilBlogs and Blackfive. I think that, everytime Blackfive is linked on Instapundit and the Instalanche is over, I net about 50 new readers that come back every day. More people to meet Someone They Should Know...

To Greyhawk - Thanks for starting MilBlogs. This blog would NEVER have gotten very far without the Air-Ground-Naval support of the Military Bloggers.

To Hugh Hewitt - Thank you for mentioning Blackfive and MilBlogs so often as the place to go to get real information about the military fighting the War on Terror.

To Brian and Heather - Thanks, again, for dinner and that great Belgian Ale... hope to see you two later this summer (after our new addition arrives).

Blog Stats
Total Number of Posts: 1,010
Total Number of Comments: 5,959

Visitor Stats
First Week: 150
First Month: 1,200 (avg. 40/day)
First Six Months Total Visits: 112,000 (avg. 600/day)
Last Six Months Total Visits: 516,000 (avg. 2,800/day)
Total unique site visits: 628,000

The Ecosystem
Ecosystem Ranking as of August 2003: Marauding Marsupial (#740 by links)
Ecosystem Ranking as of December, 2003: Playful Primate (#99 by links)
Ecosystem Ranking: Mortal Human (#22 by links, #42 by traffic)

Blogger Most Missed: Darren Kaplan (very smart guy) who may or may not be really coming back to the 'sphere.

Best Original Blackfive Posts
Blackfive's Encounter With a French General
Alzheimer's
The Warrior Caste
Me and My Muslim Friends Neighbors
Major Mathew Schram's Memorial Day
T-Minus One Hour
Racism Sucks - Especially When You Are Drinking
Goodbye Howard Dean

Best Spotlight Posts (Good For The American Spirit)
Taking Chance Home
Saving Specialist Gray
Email From Participant at President Bush's Thanksgiving
Balance

Cheers! (Good For The American Liver)
Drink Guinness - It's Good For You
Attention Scotch Lovers!
St. Patrick's Day Series
The Blogger Drinking Game

I've Got A Blog And I Know How To Use It!
Finally, I never thought that a few thousand people would visit this site every day. I figured that 150 was good enough to keep going. I never thought that I would spend hours on email every week. What's next?

Who the hell knows? What I do know is that I'll continue to focus on the great Americans that are defending our nation (and the world - you hear that, France?). Of course, I'll throw in more stuff about scotch and Guinness, too.

I hope to do more work for Spirit of America - maybe locally, and I hope to bring more attention to the good people in our military - maybe through broadcast and periodical media. I might organize a Chicago Blog-Fest for sometime in the Fall (I would say Blog-Meet but there'll definitely be a pub-crawl in there so maybe Fest is a better word). I'm not running for office, and I'm not writing a book. I've been accused of both goals on this blog.

So, I hope to have you around for another year. One thing that you can count on is that our military men and women (and their wonderful families) will provide some inspiring stories to share....

Thanks for visiting Blackfive. Remember - if you can't pick up a rifle to defend America, then do something.

Sincerely,

Matt

Splinter Cell...For the Average Joe.

This is pretty cool for a game promo - Splinter.

Missing the 11pm curfew set by your live-in girlfriend, you must maneuver around the area, undetected, in an effort to evade the girlfriend. Failure will result in sleeping on the couch...

Blackfive Info Alert

Technical: I'm still sifting through about 200 emails since Tuesday. The attack on Yahoo made it difficult for me to retrieve all of my email, and, then Yahoo decided to upgrade my account for free. Of course, the upgrade gives me 100MB more storage but the connectivity still sucks. Thanks, Yahoo.

Blogical: Oh, tomorrow is the Blackfive Blogiversary/Party. It's been one great year, thanks to you. I'll be at Castaways for a party, then somewhere like Kincade's or Dublin's...Working on a Blogiversary post.

Personal: My three-year-old son should be a negotiator when he grows up. At dinner last night...

Me: "Son, no desert unless you eat your brocolli. Who are you, George Bush?"

Little Blackfive stares at brocolli.

Me: "What's the matter, son, don't you like brocolli?"

Little Blackfive: "Oh I like brocolli, Dad, me just not eat it."

Mrs. Blackfive mutters quietly (being a little too smug, if you ask me): "He's such a total Mini-Matt..."

Flag Day

It flies over soldiers' graves, city halls across the nation, and in front of many homes. It flies over our embassies in foreign lands, at sporting events from Little League diamonds to Wrigley Field in Chicago. When I sing the national anthem, I think about what Francis Scott Key felt when he wrote it - alone, captured by the enemy, afraid that his friends, his nation was lost - and then there it was - the flag still flew over Fort McHenry. We fought on...

There is one very important story that will show what the flag means to service men and women the world over. The story of Mike Christian as told by Senator John McCain:

The Story of Mike Christian
As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a piece of white cloth and a piece of red cloth and fashioned himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he sewed the American flag on the inside of his shirt.

Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of our cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know that saying the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important or meaningful part of our day now. But I can assure you that -- for those men in that stark prison cell -- it was indeed the most important and meaningful event of our day.

One day, the Vietnamese searched our cell and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, called for Mike Christian to come out, closed the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all of us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours.

Then they opened the door of the cell and threw him back inside. He was not in good shape. We tried to comfort and take care of him as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room.

After things quieted down, I went to lie down to go to sleep. As I did, I happened to look in the corner of the room. Sitting there beneath that dim light bulb, with a piece of white cloth, a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. Sitting there, with his eyes almost shut from his beating, making another American flag. He was not making that flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was for us to be able to pledge our allegiance to our flag and country."

Doctors and Lawyers (Cats and Dogs)

This just made me LOL:

Doctor Proposes Not Treating Some Lawyers
By TARA BURGHART Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO -- A doctor's proposal asking the American Medical Association to endorse refusing care to attorneys involved in medical malpractice cases drew an angry response from colleagues Sunday at the annual meeting of the nation's largest physicians group...

Of course, that's not going to work, but it's still funny. A good friend of mine is an orthopedic surgeon and his malpractice is enormous...it's about 1/2 of his after-tax income.

Bloggers Choose Favorite Fictional Characters

John Hawkins of Right Wing News received responses from 56 bloggers about their favorite fictional characters.

About 5 or 6 of the 20 that I submitted made the list. Characters that came to mind were John McClane of Die Hard, Indiana Jones, Han Solo, etc. Later, I'll dig up my submission email and list the rest.

Update: Below is most of my list (not ranked). I put it together too quickly as I left out some great ones like Inigo Montoya.

John McClane, Aragorn, Han Solo, Porthos, Indiana Jones, Tom Jones, James T. Kirk, Harry Potter, Ivanhoe, Batman, Bobby Shaftoe (Cryptonomicon), Norm Peterson, Trinity, Hawkeye/Natty Bumpo (Last of the Mohicans)

I had thought about Holden Caufield and Wolverine. I would have added Homer Simpson, Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes from the list. As Veeshir mentions, Bugs would have been good (the older, more physical bugs instead of the PC version we have today).

Sergeant Hook Rocks!

I was finally able to get over to Hook's place last night and the good First Sergeant is writing some really great posts. Jaffy, Mission Day, and Another Day In The Stan are excellent articles about what it's like to be a Soldier in Afghanistan.

If I were a publisher, I'd be very interested in Hook, Missick, and other milbloggers overseas...

Courage And Optimism

Here is the last communication of President Ronald Reagan to the world. In 1994, he personally wrote a letter announcing that he had Alzheimer's Disease. There are so many ways to remember President Reagan. With all of the "tear down that wall" and city on the hill quotes you'll be hearing over the next few days, this is one that might get missed and one that you should read:

November 5, 1994

My fellow Americans, I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

Upon learning this news, Nancy and I had to decide whether as private citizens we would keep this a private matter or whether we would make this news known in a public way. In the past, Nancy suffered from breast cancer and I had my cancer surgeries. We found through our open disclosures we were able to raise public awareness. We were happy that as a result, many more people underwent testing. They were treated in early stages and able to return to normal, healthy lives.

So now we feel it is important to share it with you. In opening our hearts,we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition. Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it.

At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this Earth doing the things I have always done. I will continue to share life's journey with my beloved Nancy and my family. I plan to enjoy the great outdoors and stay in touch with my friends and supporters.

Unfortunately, as Alzheimer's disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. When the time comes, I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage.

In closing, let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.

I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.

Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.

Ronald Reagan

This letter displays the courage and optimism of the man that was Ronald Reagan. At this point, he hadn't been President for almost 5 years. No speech writer wrote that letter. No editor checked it first. One word was crossed out and the rest of it stood on it's own.

It's the best indicator of Ronald Reagan's heart and soul...which was filled with Courage and Optimism.

Fitness and Photography In Chicago - Part 2

I'm lucky. I live between Michigan Avenue and Lake Michigan. I am two blocks from miles and miles of shoreline and parks.

When I start my run, I'm not lucky enough to have paved German tractor trails like Greyhawk. After a few stoplights, I hit the lakefront.

I run by one of the Canals that empty into the Chicago River (that empties into Lake Michigan). Here's one of my favorite spots - yes, it's a tourist trap, but where else can you listen to Zydeco and Cajun music and drink out of 32oz. Miller Beer Cans?...Dick's Last Resort. Notice the ducks and boats pulling up for a bite to eat (click on thumbnail for larger picture).

Then, I head down to Ohio Street Beach and the lakeshore.

I love to run through Olive Park. It's right off of Ohio Street Beach and next to one of the biggest tourist attractions in Chicago - Navy Pier - yet, it's difficult to find the entrance to it so there's not a lot of people there. I take little Blackfive there for Soccer practice. Olive Park was named for Private First Class Milton L. Olive who was killed in action in Vietnam while with the 173rd Airborne. He received the Medal of Honor.

The pictures are Olive Park, the memorial to Milton Olive, the view of Navy Pier from the Park, and the view of Lake Michigan at the end of Olive Park.

My path turns south towards the locks from the Chicago River into Lake Michigan and the Columbia Yacht Club. Normally, I would continue towards our Museum Campus (Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, and Adler Planetarium), but today I decided to cut it short.

Here are the locks, the Chicago Police Station for the River and Lake Michigan, and the Columbia Yacht Club (the big ship in the background IS the Club).

I turn back towards home and head up the paths along the Chicago River.

That's about all for now. It was about 3 miles round trip. Maybe, when the weather's nice again (in a month or so!), I'll head down to Grant Park and the Museum Campus.

Some Other D-Day and WWII Links

Just in the off chance that you may not have seen some of these other links, I thought I'd share them with you:

First, if you don't read Steven Den Beste's USS Clueless every day, what the heck is wrong with you?! Sort of kidding...anyway, this post on a fantasy Bush D-Day Speech is an absolute must read. At this point, I'm all for bringing our heroes back home.

Next, Bill at INDC Journal went to the WWII Memorial Dedication and has pictures and stories galore - here and here.

The good bloggers of Silent Running are using WWII news clips and spinning them like the media would spin them today. It's one way to show media bias. Well done, SR bloggers, well done. The intro is here and the first post is Roosevelt's Continuing European Folly. Keep checking Silent Running for more liberal spin on President Roosevelt and our efforts in WWII.

Missed Blackmail Opportunity - "Hello Irony!!!"

Daniel, a co-worker of mine, sent this article link with a regret that no one decided to blackmail this guy (major jack@$$):

Outsourced IT staff fingered porn stash banker
By Lucy Sherriff

Porn-surfing bank supremo Michael Soden was caught with his browser down last week by the very same staff he outsourced to HP at the start of his reign at the Bank of Ireland.

Soden hit the headlines last year in Ireland when staff took industrial action in protest of the department's shift to Hewlett Packard. Staff were unhappy about the prospect of becoming HP employees, as they had enjoyed considerable perks at the Bank of Ireland: favourable mortgage and loan deals for instance. Now it seems that he has been forced to resign thanks to the very department which he sent merrily on its way.

Staff informed the bank that they had discovered pornography on Soden's machine on Wednesday last week, during routine maintenance. Soden resigned his post on Saturday, after the internal investigation into the discovery was leaked to the local press.

It would be disingenuous to suggest that the "routine maintenance" was anything other than that, but it's clear that Soden's machine was thoroughly attended to.

The outsourcing move was Soden's second high-profile decision after his appointment as chief executive. His first was to update the acceptable use policy that prohibits staff from accessing porn using company equipment.

Talk about Irony kicking you in the teeth...

Who Reads Blogs?

John Hawkins of Right Wing News decided to find out what well-known conservative writers know about blogs. He contacted 100 and had 28 respond with their favorite blogs.

Polling Conservative Opinion Makers About Blogs

Movie Review - The Day After Tomorrow

Okay, hopefully this won't be a surprise to you - we're all gonna die....Really. But, if climatogical disaster of The Day After Tomorrow would occur, a lot more of us will die sooner rather than later.

Now, to be completely honest, I liked the movie a lot. But I like the over-the-top disaster movies and this one is definitely in that category. Aside from the liberal environmental preaching and overbearing cliches, it was pretty good.

It was directed by the same guy who directed Independence Day...remember the White House blowing up? This movie has more landmark destruction than just about any other movie I've seen.

Here's the synopsis: Dennis Quaid is the only major scientist that believes that the world is headed for another Ice Age in about one hundred to five hundred years. No one believes him, including a Vice President who, amazingly, looks like Dick Cheney. The arrogant VP essentially ignores Quaid's research because it'll affect the economy. You instantly dislike the VP.

So, Dennis Quaid is wrong (by about one hundred to five hundred years) and a worldwide disaster ensues a few weeks after his presentation to the G8. Tokyo gets basketball-sized hail, LA gets massive tornados, Australia gets the Mother-of-All-Typhoons, and New York gets the giant tidal wave. All of the climatic disasters are followed by a 150 degree drop in temperature. The last half an hour of the movie is about the survivors.

Some of the irksome things about this movie:

1. The US is evacuating the people in the disaster areas (um, that means the whole US) into Mexico. An announcer on Fox News says, "Mexico has closed the border in an effort to stop the refugees from getting across the border." The entire movie theatre laughed. Come on, liberal Hollywood, get some common sense. 'Mexico has closed the border'? Right!

2. There are a ton of cliche' actors in this movie. The producers must have looked up standard nationality characterizations in the Screen Play handbook. For example, Ian Holm is a British scientist who's band of merry Brits is doomed and they meet their fate stoicly with some twelve year scotch.

3. Note to Hollywood: We get that you think Dick Cheney is evil. Really. Stop making every evil, tree burning, corporate hugging VP look like Cheney.

4. Note to Hollywood 2: I appreciate that you took out the Hollywood sign with a tornado, but can we stop picking on New York? Please?

All in all, I liked the movie. The Day After Tomorrow was interesting - how people survived or died, what parts of the world were destroyed, what happened to the US...I'm still wondering how we are going to get the guys in the international space station back down to Earth.

One final observation from Mrs. Blackfive: Nerds in the movie survived by their wits, everyone else died. So, her advice to non-nerds is to marry a geek and increase your chances of surviving a ecological disaster.

It's probably safe to assume that a lot of blogosphere folks would make it.

Seven Years

Tomorrow is the Seventh Anniversary of my marriage to Mrs. Blackfive. It's also Memorial Day so we are celebrating our Anniversary today because tomorrow is for remembering the ultimate sacrifices made by our men and women to keep us free.

To say that the last seven years have been a whirlwind would be an understatement.

Fate had a lot to do with our meeting. Our friends had been trying to set us up for months. My friends knew of "the perfect girl" for me. Ladies and Gentlemen, if that isn't a signal to run and hide, then I don't know what is. I enjoyed being a bachelor and had been unattached for awhile.

Her friends were telling her that I was "the man for her". She is very independent and avoided me like the plague.

Every time that I suspected that my friends were trying to get us together at a party or event, I wouldn't show up. This strategy worked for about six months.

On the return from a vacation with my friends (we were still at O'Hare Airport), I received a call about a party and we decided to go. I was so relaxed from diving in the Caymans that I neglected to check if "that girl" was going to be there.

Later that night, I was at the bar making a Bombay Sapphire Martini when this angel walked up. She was smiling and she lit up the room. She mentioned that Bombay Sapphire was her favorite gin. So I made her one of my patented "Nick and Nora" Martinis. She's the first girl that I ever met that knew who the hell Nick and Nora were.

We talked for about two minutes when each of us realized that we were "the perfect girl" and "the man for her" - that each of us were standing in front of the very person that we were trying to avoid for six months. We spent the next few hours talking about everything. She was a beautiful Southern Belle who had the best laugh I had ever heard - I wanted to spend the rest of my life hearing those laughs.

There is no way that I can describe what I felt except that it was the most overwhelming and consuming emotion I had ever experienced. It was obvious that the same thing was happening to her.

Our first date was set for New Year's Eve. Our first kiss was at Midnight. I couldn't sleep for two days afterward.

I asked her to marry me four months later, and the next eight years were, to put it simply, phenomenal.

She's the best thing that ever happened to me.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Section 111

Psst. I'm Abe Froman today (audio file).

Note: Everytime I post one of these messages, someone emails with "Hey, what are you wearing? We'll look for you."

Right. I'll be wearing a Cubs Baseball Hat. With Sosa and Wood out, look for the guy having too much fun when the chips are down...that'd be me. We're gonna win!

Good luck.

Update: Damn good game. Extra Innings. Alou nails one. Perfect.

Greeting Lefties on Blackfive

Howdie, Left Wingers.

If you're here from the Salon Right Hook Column, welcome to Blackfive. Please take a look around.

What you can expect from me?

1. Treat you with respect as long as you demonstrate it in return.
2. I post about many things - from my beloved Cubbies to Someone You Should Know to politics to movies. I am conservative (as most military people tend to be), but I come from a large left wing family and am open to thoughtful discussion.
3. Will ban you for denigrating the military or using excessive foul language or sarcastic inuendo that has nothing to do with the post that you are commenting on (in other words, get your own blog).

What I expect from you.

1. Treat the military with respect, especially the posts here about the sacrifices that they are making.
2. Comment with clarity and on topic discussion.

Thanks and welcome to Blackfive.

(Big Thanks! to Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost for alerting me to the Salon article).

(P.S. Commenter "BushMustDie" - you were banned for both numbers one and two...)

Salon's Right Hook column linked to the letter I received from the Marine Colonel about President Bush's apology for Abu Ghraib abuses and the effect it has made on the Arab world.

Carter cites a recent e-mail from an unnamed Marine colonel in Iraq who says he was struck by the degree to which Bush's apology has had a positive effect. The e-mail was posted by fellow military blogger Blackfive, a former U.S. Army major and Defense Intelligence Agency officer (who provides only his real first name, Matthew.) In the e-mail, the Marine colonel recounts a recent broadcast he saw on Arab television:

The unnamed Marine Colonel has a name. It's Colonel Larry King. And, for any other media types, I can provide contact information for you.

Wednesday Warp

For those of you that are relatively new to blogs or Blackfive, I try to do a weekly blog roundup of my favorites for the week. Been busy of late so haven't done one in awhile. Here we go:

Two words: Hugh Hewitt

Jennifer Martinez has many great posts but these two are awesome - I Refuse to Join In National Act of Contrition and Maj. Mark Smith Speaks Out!

The Bejus Pundit has a new look...again. I'm just glad Donnie's keeping at it.

Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost has a lesson for you about Sarin gas.

I try to check in on Robert Prather's Insults Unpunished at least once or twice per day. (the other day he called someone a semi-crappy economist...)

Same for James Joyner's Outside the Beltway, too.

And Jon Henke's QandO blog...

The Laughing Wolf has an enlightening post about why the media wants us lose the war.

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has a post about a story the media dropped.

I'm calling PETA about this.

Sergeant Hook - America's Favorite First Sergeant in Afghanistan - celebrates seventeen years in the Army with a rememberance of his first minutes as a Soldier.

Blogs To Visit

Check out SPC Missik - who is a MilBlogger in Iraq - it's a great site with great posts.

Cool Blue Blog

Protein Wisdom

MacbeauLand - a blog that seems dedicated to next G8 summit in Savannah.

Uptown Girl

Fred Schoeneman

Check them out. You might something that you'll like.

The Great Books List

Via Pejmanesque I found this list of works at the College Board 101 Great Books List (Recommended). Over the last few weeks, various bloggers of all forms, shapes and sizes have been listing the books that they have read (note to Mr. Green: Cliff's Notes do not count).

I'll put my selections in the Extended Section along with links to similar posts of other bloggers to see which Great Books they've consumed.

The books that I have read are in bold (and mostly due to the most incredible High School English Teacher of All Time - Judy Bunch - she ROCKS!).

Behold!

Beowulf Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart Agee, James - A Death in the Family Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March Brontë, Charlotte - Jane Eyre Brontë, Emily - Wuthering Heights Camus, Albert - The Stranger Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard Chopin, Kate - The Awakening Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage Dante - Inferno de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust Golding, William - Lord of the Flies Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter Heller, Joseph - Catch 22 Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms Homer - The Iliad Homer - The Odyssey Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt London, Jack - The Call of the Wild Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain Marquez, Gabriel García - One Hundred Years of Solitude Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener Melville, Herman - Moby Dick Miller, Arthur - The Crucible Morrison, Toni - Beloved O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night Orwell, George - Animal Farm Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49 Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye Shakespeare, William - Hamlet Shakespeare, William - Macbeth Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Sophocles - Antigone Sophocles - Oedipus Rex Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair Thoreau, Henry David - Walden Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Voltaire - Candide Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five Walker, Alice - The Color Purple Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse Wright, Richard - Native Son

Here are links to other bloggers lists:
Pejmanesque
Relfections in d Minor
Accidental Verbosity
Misty at A Special Kind of Stupid
Priorities & Frivolities
The Primary Main Objective
Ipse Dixit
Munuviana (Physics Geek Post)
She Who Will Be Obeyed
Modulator
I Speak of Dreams
Scribbling Woman
Edward Champion's Return of the Reluctant
Collected Miscellany
Storytelling
The Sixth International
Common Sense and Wonder
The Ministry of Minor Perfidy (adds to list)
The Little Professor
Six Different Ways
aethele
Pharynulga
The Salt Box
In Favor Of Thinking

Note: At first, I wasn't going to turn this into a link fest, but, then, after all, I am the Paratrooper of Love so I linked away (some of these blogs might not appreciate this site, either). Check out some of these blogs (especially, if you haven't read any of them before) - you might find something that you like.

Mark Your Calendars

HALO 2 --- NOVEMBER 9th!

BOOYAH!

Movie Review - Van Helsing

Just saw Van Helsing. Good action movie. If you liked the Mummy movies then you'll like this one.

Why?

It was written and directed by the creator/director of the Mummy - Stephen Sommers.

I liked it, but it definitely did not get you attached to the characters as much as the Mummy or, say, X-Men. There was a lot of special effects and animation. Maybe too much. The vampires were great but some of the other monsters looked over done.

The best character was the Friar - Van Helsing's assistant. It's the guy who played Faramir in the Lord of the Rings. He was the sidekick and comic relief - a bumbling genius of an assistant who always manages to overcome great cowardice to help save the day (most of the time).

Kate Beckinsdale looked great, too. There's just something about girls with big weapons.

Hi! I'm Abe Froman - the Sausage King of Chicago.

Teacher (taking attendance): "Blackfive?....... Blackfive?.......Blackfive?"

Jen: ... "Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Blackfive pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."

...

Psst. I'm Ferris Bueller today (audio file).

Wednesday Warp

Speaking of Warps, Cool Blue Blog has been making installments in his Star Chores series - Parts One and Two.

Wind Rider at Silent Running has a post about the CLASSIFIED documents that were leaked to Seymor Hersch.

Heather of Angelweave reminds us of a TV Series coming soon to DVD. Here's a hint (for Harvey).

More soon...

Visit Mr. Green now...he's back posting for awhile and his Ted Rall posts are absolutely hilarious!

Greyhawk and Michele's Contest

I mentioned previously that Greyhawk and Michele Catalano were having a little contest in honor of Micah Wright. Comrade Wright lied about his military service and claimed to be a Ranger during the invasion of Panama - a myth debunked by the beautiful Laura (Mrs. Spoons) who actually dated him during the late 80's.

Anyway, here is the first of many posters that I'll be working on in honor of that lying, no good, scumbag, Micah Wright (apology for the language on the poster - this kind of thing really gets under my skin).

You can see the rest of the entrants in the Micah Wright Remixed Gallery here.

Public Service Announcement From Blackfive

First, I want to sincerely thank you for visiting Blackfive. Unfortunately, we have some unpleasant business to discuss.

I almost never ban someone for having a differing opinion than mine or others who comment as long as the discussion is fair, collegial and well-reasoned. If the comment degenerates into anti-war slogans and foul language, I ban 'em. It's that simple.

Over the last 9 months, I've had to ban only five commenters for vile remarks on this blog. While I don't necessarily deserve the label, a lot of people believe that I am too even-handed in dealing with commenters who disagree with me. The commenters on this blog have as much to do with Blackfive's success as I do. The discussion and the sharing of information is why the blogosphere has been growing at an exponential rate.

But now I have to make an exception because it has to do with honoring a fallen hero.

Unfortunately, someone out there is sending quite a few people to this site to post anti-war and anti-American messages on the post about Taking Chance Home. This is horrific to me. You may disagree with me about that but this is my blog. If you don't like it, you can go somewhere else. It's a free Blogosphere.

Don't mistake my allowance for open discourse for permission to dishonor the memory of an American Hero. That would be a huge mistake to make.

So, after 80 or so great comments, I have to start watching that post. I may turn off commenting all together on that post...and that's very disheartening and unfortunate. I have banned over twenty IP addresses this morning alone.

And whoever is encouraging those people to visit that post and attempt to reduce it's intent, I'll be sure to find you so we can have an honest discussion about Honor, Integrity, Patriotism and Humanity.

Blackfive Out.

New ABC Poll - Bush More Likeable

A new ABC Poll is out showing people to believe that Bush is more compassionate, likeable, and caring than Kerry.

...Americans, by an eight-point margin, pick Bush over Kerry as "friendly and likeable" and as "caring and compassionate," and by a seven-point margin as someone who "shares my values and beliefs," an ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll finds...

Not surprising, but encouraging.

Quite frankly, with all of election issues out there (and they could be spun a lot more against Bush), the fact that Kerry doesn't have a double digit lead is pathetic.

Blog Trip

In light of all that is happening with Medals these days, Joe Ham has a picture of John Kerry eating...his medals.

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has a post about the use of WWII propaganda posters by the left.

Speaking of posters, Tony the Oriental Redneck created a post of posters for our Spirit of America Drive last week.

Mamamontez has an update on the moron who denigrated a fallen hero. He's still a moron (who should get knocked on his ass).

More later...

So What To Do Now?

Okay. So you've been here before...maybe Taking Chance Home was your first time here. You saw lots of plugs to help the Marines. Our Blog-a-thon for the Marines is over...for now. Of course, you can still support Spirit of America (I know I will).

A lot of you, and I mean A LOT, have emailed me for information about sending care packages to the troops. Some of you may not have really considered "taking care" of an unknown military person before so here's your chance to help.

Soldiers' Angels is a wonderful non-for-profit run by some of the best Americans around - military moms! There, you can adopt soldiers or whole platoons of soldiers, send care packages, emails. You name it. You can even help the wounded soldiers as they come back from overseas.

Soldiers' Angels and Spirit of America are not the only organizations out there that help our military.

Look into donating money to these two charities:

A. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation

The SOWF provides scholarships for the children of Special Operations soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who have lost their lives (in training or combat). A few dollars would go a long way in providing for the children of those who have died defending America.

B. United Warrior Survivor Foundation

UWSF offers scholarship grants to surviving spouses, along with educational counseling, financial guidance, investment planning, and other programs.

Think about donating your unused frequent flyer miles for a soldier to visit his or her family. Check out Operation Hero Miles.

Operation Gratitude - another site where you can help send care packages to troops in Iraq.

Books For Soldiers - it's one more way to show troops that you care.

Operation AC - Commenter Retread reminds me to include this charity which sends 110v single phase air conditioners to our troops in Iraq. They also send medical supplies to the Combat Support Hospitals for both injured American Soldiers and for the staff, as well as care packages to our troops overseas.

Keystone Soldiers also takes care of soldiers by adoption, matching pen pals, or sending care packages.

And Adopt a Platoon - another source for adopting soldiers who don't have someone on the homefront.

The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is a nonprofit, charitable organization that provides financial, educational, and other assistance to members of the Naval Services of the United States, and their eligible family members and survivors, when in need. To do this, counseling, loans, grants, various services, and referral to other community resources are available. There are no fees for such help. The Society, operating in partnership with the Navy and Marine Corps, administers nearly 250 offices ashore and afloat at Navy and Marine Corps bases around the world.

Whatever steps that you take to take care of our troops - no matter how large or small - will resonate beyond just one American soldier.

Someone that was referred by this site to Soldiers Angels also was responsible for donating their extra frequent flyer miles to bring a family to see their wounded soldier at Walter Reed. Just some simple actions made all the difference in the world.

So please think about supporting our troops. You can show that you care about their lives while they defend yours.

Listening To...

...Yellow Card - "Ocean Avenue". It rocks. Listened to it while I ordered a Nuke the Moon (essay link) shirt (Frank's got more of them - and, no, Mrs. Blackfive is not eligible for the t-shirt contest).

Switching to Social D - "Ball and Chain".

Help The Marines - Part 4

The battle of the blogs has commenced. HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WAR - Please donate now!

US Marines seek to equip seven (7) television stations serving local communities within Al Anbar Province, Iraq. The Province includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. These stations will offer information that is more accurate and balanced than existing alternatives. The goal is to improve understanding between Americans and Iraqis, build trust and reduce tensions. Current TV news in Iraq often carries negative, highly-biased accounts of the U.S. presence. Unanswered, its effect is to stoke resentment and encourage conflict. The Marines seek to ensure the Iraqi people have access to better, more balanced information. By equipping local television stations and providing the ability to generate news and programming, the Marines will create a viable news alternative - one owned and operated by local Iraqi citizens.

Da Goddess has a very interesting item up for bid and a great post to go along with it. Anyone who talks about both *ahem* bras and Monty Python in the same post has my vote. Seriously.

Smash keeps putting things up for bid - the latest being deck of the most wanted cards with the Kuwait Embassy seal on them.

Sondra K. also has an official Ba'athist Party Notecard for auction. Check it out.

Home!

I barely survived the weekend. Over the last 4 days, I have slept for maybe ten hours (and most of that was on the plane). Resting tonight. Back tomorrow. A few highlights:

Talked the groom into drinking Patron shooters at 2:30am...about seven hours from the wedding. We bribed the jazz quintet at the reception to play "Jump Around" by House of Pain. Yeah, I really know how to add class to an event....This story was told a few times as well as this one (Todd and another groomsman were there for that one). Todd's mom, Adele, kept introducing me as the man who got her husband blind drunk at Oktoberfest.

Side story: My last memory of that night was our taking over for the band durning a break. We were actually leading the Spaten tent in John Denver's Country Roads:

Matt, Todd, and Gordon: Country Roads

1,000 drunk Germans: Take Me Home!!!!

MTG: To the place

1,000 drunk Germans: Where I belong!!!!

After about eight hours of drinking, Gordon needed some down time. I wrote down the address to our hotel on a card and Todd dumped Gordon in a cab and sent him home. Adele was NOT pleased. Great lady with an extensive memory.

Santa Barbara was BEAUTIFUL. Had a mariachi cruise on Friday before the rehearsal. Three Words: Over.The.Top.

And thanks to Darren Kaplan for the excellent restaurant advice. The Bachelor Party was impressed with the choice.

I'm On The Way To Santa Barbara...

...so posting will be probably be non-existent or light as the wedding (I am a groomsman) has events scheduled from eleven AM to midnight every day. I'll need a vacation after this one.

This is the wedding of one of my best friends, Todd, who I met twelve years ago in the Army. I was his sponsor when he arrived at Division HQ. I was supposed to show him around and get him settled in on the base. I didn't want to spend extra time on top of my usual 14 hour work day showing a newbie around the base.

We are completely different. He was a Candy-Ass College Boy Straight Off Of Fraternity Row, and I was a Mustang. He went strictly by the book and letter of the law (or UCMJ). I did whatever it took to get a mission done - including bribing Range NCO's with Jack Daniels and German contractors with Cigarettes, and occasionally stealing Wesley Clark's air conditioner so my men had a cool place to sleep once in awhile. He also frowned upon my choice in girlfriends which sometimes resulted in the breaking of a few rules - both official and unofficial - one was the Division Commander's Admin Assistant and one was the FORSCOM Commander's daughter (not at the same time...pervs).

We ended up becoming the best of friends.

I learned a lot from Todd. He reminded me of why I chose to become an Officer in the first place. Sometimes, you kind of lose your way along the career path. Todd brought me back into being a leader instead of being a smart-ass, know-it-all, jaded lifer. In return, I got Todd into a lot of trouble. Heh.

Anyway, here's a picture of the adorable couple (I think Todd's hammered).

Have a great week/weekend everyone!

If You're In Chicago...

...you might consider getting Tanked For The Troops. Roland sends this info about the event:

I thought you'd want to be aware of an event that involves two key items on your agenda: Beer and Supporting Our Armed Forces.

Joe's on Weed Street is hosting an event this Friday called Tanked for the Troops, wherein a $25 cover charge gets you an open bar from 8-11pm with all the proceeds going to care packages to be sent to units in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BTW, there will be notebooks at the event to write messages to our troops overseas. Here's the poster for the event.

Unfortunately, I will miss this event (I'll be in California). Last night, I was talking with some friends about organizing a Support The Troops Pub Crawl for Chicago soon. Details to follow.

Random Stuff

My parents are moving soon. So, yesterday, I spent a lot of time helping them get their things in order (which is why there was light posting). One of my tasks was to go through about 20 boxes of stuff that I had stored in their attic. They are moving into a smaller house (no need for four extra bedrooms for us boys).

Among the boxes of stuff that have been in my parents attic for over ten years:

1. One set of dog-tags that had a .45 bullet (with a hole drilled though it) strung with parachute cord.

Mrs. Blackfive: "Why is there a BULLET on your dog tags?"

Blackfive: "When I was a smart-ass Second Lieutenant, my Colonel gave this to me and told me, that whenever I felt like making a sarcastic remark, to bite the bullet and shut the hell up."

2. A copy of "A Paratrooper's Faith". It's a reproduced pocket book with psalms and poems that were carried by Sergeant George Tullidge who was killed in the invasion of France on June 8th, 1944. He was wounded and took over a machine-gun position over the road from St. Mere Eglise and held off the German counter attack allowing his wounded troopers to be rescued. He died of his wounds and never left his post to seek medical attention. Sergeant Tullidge's mother had compiled the contents by hand in a notebook.

3. A lot of pictures. One picture of me and Matt Schram at an Officer's Club Halloween Party. He was dressed as a woman and I wore an official Cook County Jail inmate jumpsuit. No comment on how the jumpsuit was acquired.

"Ocean's Twelve"...

...is being filmed right in front of the door to my building this morning. I have to go out through the garage today. The last time I was annoyed with Hollywood invading Chicago was when "Remember Me" was being filmed at the Twin Anchors. Prevented me from getting the best ribs in Chicago one night.

I liked the remake of "Ocean's Eleven" a lot, but "Twelve" isn't directed by Stephen Soderbergh - although it might be better than the first if Julie Roberts isn't in it.

Had to vent.

Opening Day!

Go Cubs!!!

The only reasonable substitute for Wrigley Field today would be to be at Murphy's Bleachers and drinking this.

*muttering something about working and the damn responsibilities of family*

Wrigley is tough ticket this season - Only seats left are obstructed-view

...But with the Cubs and their fans still giddy from last year's playoff run and expectations sky-high, the stadium is essentially sold out for the year, leaving many fans and groups like the Boys and Girls Club shut out.

As the Cubs prepare to open their home schedule Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, team officials say demand for seats has far outstripped supply...

I went to a lot of Cubs games last year, but I actually saw twice as many White Sox games as Cubs games. I usually take my tech department to various games. Looks like it'll be even harder to squeeze my vendors for tickets this year.

For the diehard fans, there's always a way to see the game.

Happy Easter!

Here's some Easter Eggs

Drink Guinness - It's Good For You!

In continuing the Blackfive tradition of cutting edge journalism celebrating the nectar of the gods, I thought we'd discuss Guinness today.

There is an awesome new study published (by the University of Wisconsin) about the different health factors of various beers - carbs, calories, alcohol content, etc. Of course, my friends, you knew where the "nectar of the gods" wound up on the study - as the best bloody beer in the world (for your health). Of course, it's healthy! If it wasn't so good for your health, the life expectancy of an Irishman would only be about thirty years.

Raise a pint of Guinness to your good health
By KEVIN HUNT
Hartford Courant

Question: Whose dietary and health interests are better served by the 12-ounce beer?

If the guidelines are less alcohol, fewer calories, fewer carbohydrates - and, to top it off, protection against heart attacks, blindness and maybe even impotence - then it's the Guinness drinker, hands down.

No joke.

Guinness, in fact, is lower in alcohol, calories and carbohydrates than Samuel Adams, Budweiser, Heineken and almost every other major-brand beer not classified as light or low-carb. It has fewer calories and carbohydrates than low-fat milk and orange juice, too.
<...>
In the study, Guinness proved twice as effective as Heineken at preventing blood clots. Guinness is loaded with flavonoids, anti-oxidants that give the dark color to many fruits and vegetables.

These anti-oxidants are better than vitamins C and E, the study found, at keeping bad LDL cholesterol from clogging arteries. Blocked arteries also contribute to erectile dysfunction, as does overindulgence in alcohol.

Guinness has a higher concentration than lighter beers of vitamin B, which lowers levels of homocysteine, linked to clogged arteries. And researchers have found that anti-oxidants from the moderate use of stout might reduce the incidence of cataracts by as much as 50%...

So, lads and lasses, drink your Guinness and stay healthy!

(I'm in St. Louis, now, drinking a Guinness - courtesy of my father-in-law, as I compose this post late Friday night. Mmmmm.)

Blogs to Visit

Bill at INDC is having a caption contest judged by Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters.

Speaking of Captain Ed, he got a mention in James Taranto's Best of the Web for his often quoted piece about President Clinton's Final National Security Report (with no mention of Al Qaeda).

John over at LeanWrite has an interesting interview with David Zucchino, the author of "Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad".

If you haven't read Smash's run-down of the counter-protest in San Diego last weekend, you should read it. It'll put a smile on your face. THANKS, SMASH!

James Joyner is stealing my thoughts again. This time it's in response to a Kevin Drum piece about environmental reviews for grocery stores.

Feste at Fool's Blog has a post related to yesterday's Tartan Day celebration - it's about the Royal Scots, 1st Battalion, currently serving in Iraq.

Update 2:30PM CST:

Kelly the Patriette has a great story about a wounded War Hero - Alan Babin - who is making a miraculous recovery. Make sure to read what his mother has to say about our involvement in Iraq.

At some point, Annika should be appointed Secretary of Defense for quoting the best Patton line EVER. I do like Rummy. Maybe after he leaves...

The Donovan got himself a new template. Looks great, John!

Tell It to the Judge

...meaning me. I'll be helping Humorous Blogger Frank J. pick out a IMAO t-shirt babe. Among others, Glenn Reynolds, Misha, Bill Whittle, Harvey (I think he's the only Harvey in the Blogosphere), John Hawkins, and one (yet to be determined) other judge will be judging as well.

Frank J. wants to increase sales of his t-shirts and this is his grand scheme to make him rich, rich, rich. Here's what Frank is looking for:

So, ladies, you are probably asking yourself what you need to do to be the IMAO T-Shirt Babe. First, be a babe. Second, have a photo taken (it needs to be recent) displaying your babeness. Third, to prove your babeness, write a short (200 words or less) hawkish statement (we can't have someone wearing a, anti-terrorist t-shirt who deosn’t actually want terrorists dead). Finally, e-mail a digital copy of the photo, your short essay, name, and website URL (if you have one) to me with the subject "IMAO T-Shirt Babe".

So, if you meet the above qualifications, send your application to Frank...especially if you have a razor sharp wit (that'll get my vote).

Tartan Day - Part 3 - The Declaration of Arbroath

The Declaration of Arbroath - April 6th, 1320

Our own American Declaration of Independence of 1776 was based loosely on the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath. Here is one key passage:

‘Yet if he (Bruce) should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.’

Sound familiar? It's amazing that those men, so long ago, had the same ideas about freedom as those in later centuries.

Here is a statement by John Prebble about the nature of the Declaration of Arbroath:

The Declaration of Arbroath 1320 by John Prebble
The Declaration of Arbroath was and has been unequalled in its eloquent plea for the liberty of man. From the darkness of medieval minds it shone a torch upon future struggles which its signatories could not have foreseen or understood.The author of this noble Latin address is unknown, though it is assumed to have been composed by Bernard de Linton, Abbot of Arbroath and Chancellor of Scotland. Above the seals of eight earls and forty-five barons, it asked for the Pope's dispassionate intervention in the bloody quarrel between the Scots and the English, and so that he might understand the difference between the two its preamble gave him a brief history of the former. The laughable fiction of this is irrelevant. What is important is the passionate sincerity of the men who believed it, who were placing a new and heady nationalism above the feudal obligations that had divided their loyalties less than a quarter of a century before. In its mixture of defiance and supplication, nonsensical history and noble thought, two things make the Declaration of Arbroath the most important document in Scottish history. Firstly it set the will and the wishes of the people above the King. Though they were bound to him 'both by law and by his merits' it was so that their freedom might be maintained. If he betrayed them he would be removed and replaced. This remarkable obligation placed upon a feudal monarch by his feudal subjects may be explained in part by the fact that Bruce was still a heather king to many of them, still a wild claimant ruling upon sufferance and success. But the roots of his kingship were Celtic, and a Celtic tradition was here invoked, the memory of the Seven Earls, the Seven Sons of Cruithne the Pict in who, it was believed, had rested the ancient right of tanistry, the elevation of kings by selection. This unique relationship of king and people would influence their history henceforward, and would reach its climax in the Reformation and the century following, when a people's Church would declare and maintain its superiority over earthly crowns. Secondly, the manifesto affirmed the nation's independence in a way no battle could, and justified it with a truth that is beyond nation and race. Man has a right to freedom and a duty to defend it with his life. The natural qualifications put upon this by a medieval baron are irrelevant, as are the reservations which slave-owning Americans placed upon their declaration of independence. The truth once spoken cannot be checked, the seed once planted controls its own growth, and the liberty which men secure for themselves must be given by them to others, or it will be taken as they took it. Freedom is a hardy plant and must flower in equality and brotherhood.

The whole premise is summed up in the second to last line.

The truth once spoken cannot be checked...

Tartan Day - Part 2

My family is from the clans Robertson, Sinclair, Lamont, and Shaw.

...and, BTW, Chicago has a few Highland festivals each year. While not quite the on par with the Stone Mountain, Georgia, crowd, it's fun for us to get together.

The 2004 Illinois Saint Andrew Society Highland Games - June 2004. This one is the most fun. Rugby, Haggis, and Scotch! Little Blackfive got a Scotland Football Kit last year.

7th Annual Celtic Festival in Chicago - September 2004. This is a smaller version of the above and, while it includes all Celts, it has about equal amounts of Scottish and Irish music, food, and games.

Just remember to call it a KILT, not a skirt!...or you're liable to get hurt.

For the Geek Purist...

This one is pretty interesting. Some computer studs took a lot of time and effort to bake some cakes...

Personal Computer E-Z Bake Oven

Tartan Day - Part 1

"Every line of strength in American history is a line colored with Scottish blood." - Woodrow Wilson

United States Senate Simple Resolution (S.Res.) 155 - May 20th, 1998

Whereas April 6 has a special significance for all Americans, and especially those Americans of Scottish descent, because the Declaration of Arbroath, the Scottish Declaration of Independence, was signed on April 6, 1320 and the American Declaration of Independence was modelled on that inspirational document;

Whereas this resolution honors the major role that Scottish Americans played in the founding of this Nation, such as the fact that almost half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were of Scottish descent, the Governors in 9 of the original 13 States were of Scottish ancestry, Scottish Americans successfully helped shape this country in its formative years and guide this Nation through its most troubled times;

Whereas this resolution recognizes the monumental achievements and invaluable contributions made by Scottish Americans that have led to America's preeminence in the fields of science, technology, medicine, government, politics, economics, architecture, literature, media, and visual and performing arts;

Whereas this resolution commends the more than 200 organizations throughout the United States that honor Scottish heritage, tradition, and culture, representing the hundreds of thousands of Americans of Scottish descent, residing in every State, who already have made the observance of Tartan Day on April 6 a success;

Whereas these numerous individuals, clans, societies, clubs, and fraternal organizations do not let the great contributions of the Scottish people go unnoticed:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate designates April 6 of each year as "National Tartan Day."

Here are some bloggers celebrating Tartan Day:

Absinthe & Cookies
Ninjababe's Ramble
Jen Speaks
Frozen In Montreal
Blackfive - The Paratrooper of
Love
Grim's Hall
Miss Apropos
Jackalope Pursuivant
Accidental Verbosity
Right Wingin-It
Drowning at 2 Feet Sea Level
Straight White Guy
Hard Times
TacJammer
BabyTrollBlog
Triticale
Laughing Wolf
Da Goddess
ChristWeb
Mudville Gazette
I Love Jet
Noise

Home Sweet Home and Blog Stuff

Arrived at about 7pm, a little worse for wear, back in Chicago with cold lake breezes, rude people, traffic jams, and really missing palm trees, southern hospitality, warm sunsets, and the smell of the ocean. I shouldn't complain too much as I'll be in Santa Barbara soon.

Thanks to everyone who emailed me about the previous post. I wrote it quickly (and sincerely) this morning, delaying my departure for the airport and stressing out my wife. It was time well spent. I appreciate everyone's opinion on the matter, but the apology must stand as is and unqualified.

BTW, John Hawkins has a survey of bloggers (yours truly included) that submitted their choices for contemporary dinner guests. I included many politicians and public figures but included Stephen Tyler (Aerosmith) and Stephen den Beste (blogger). My votes were 1, 2, 3, 12 (Dennis Miller) plus a few others that didn't make the cut like George H. W. Bush. I didn't include Mel because he actually bought my wife and I dinner before...

And since it's my last night on vacation, I have some scotch to drink...Have a good night everyone.

Gone Fishin'

Will be out in the Gulf fishing with Little Blackfive (his first fishing trip). More later...and visit those sites that I listed previously. They are all well worth your time.

The Call - Part 3

This is in reference to these posts about my friend, Kiang, and his wedding: The Call and The Call - Part 2.

Here's a picture of us at about 11PM. The bride and groom are on the right. For perspective, I am 5'11" and in the back, wearing a black turtleneck and a suede coat. It was really, really cold that night. When Kiang saw me, he said, "Are we hunting bear tonight in some strange northern American ritual?"

He was joking.

I replied, "In a manner of speaking, yes." And opened the scotch.

Tuesday Blog Stuff

1. The Commissar has a new map of Africa up at the Politburo Diktat.

2. GeorgeWBush.com has the Kerry Gas Calculator that will give you the cost of a Kerry $.50/gallon tax increase.

3. John Hawkins at Right Wing News has more on the Benedict Arnold issue for John Kerry.

More to follow...

4. Harvey of Bad Money takes a look at the benefits of appeasement.

5. Bill Whittle has Chapter Two up at EjectEjectEject.

Catching Up on Email

Apologies if you sent me an email and it's taking awhile to hear back.

I am actually on vacation in Naples, Florida, and working through dial-up. Maybe, I'll try to find Frank.

I'll try to get back to everyone...eventually...in between Bombay Sapphire martinis and building sand castles with Little Blackfive.

I'll also continue to post a bit so no real hiatus for the blog.

HALO and Rising Sun

This is good news. I like XBox a lot. My time as a grad student has something to do with it.

When I was a grad student at the U of Chicago, my grad advisor quit teaching to go work for XBox. He had been developing games for years and was one of the creators of Marathon which was the precursor to Doom. He was a cool grad advisor.

Cool Grad Advisor: "Hey, Matt, want to discuss my new Algorithm? It'll only take about five hours."

Me: "Not really."

CGA: "Want to go to Jimmy's, get a beer and talk transport protocols for XBox."

Me: "Um. Hell, yeah."

After he left, I was assigned to a real pain-in-the-ass who discovered that I hadn't taken his Super Advanced Algorithms for Masocist Geniuses class. It had five math problems per week that took me about 30 hours and 40 pages (typed) to finish. I was ready to commit homicide. And, to top it all off, he was a socialist who believed that the government should pay him to sit and think about stuff. I had to listen to that crap all of the time.

"The University of Chicago - Where Fun Comes To Die!"

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call a major digression.

Back to the point. I love video games. Lately, I have been consumed by two games. I only like to play one game at a time until I finish it.

HALO for XBox (I heard that the PC version was a lot better)

and

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun for Nintendo GameCube

HALO is fun. I like the fact that you can only carry two weapons - some games allow you to carry fifteen different weapons (like Turok which I like, too). I don't like the vehicle parts too much, but the sniping is good stuff. HALO is the exception to my one game rule. I stop playing HALO for weeks or months and come back to it.

Rising Sun has been somewhat of a diappointment. I finished it in four nights. I liked Frontline better. I have said in previous posts that there's only one thing better than killing Nazis, and that's drinking beer and killing Nazis. Maybe it is just better than blowing up Saki and shooting Niponese soldiers. It just wasn't as good as the first one. Or maybe it was as good and I wanted something more...and the ending sucked. I guess there is going to be a Rising Sun Part 2.

The point of this post: Anyone have any recommendations on new games?

Interesting Things In The Blogosphere

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has more on the protests. I found his update at the end to be very amusing.

Darren Kaplan has a thoughtful post about the possibility of President Bush being able to actually prevent 9/11.

Drill Sergeant Rob has finally moved to BlogSpot. Rob is a US Army Drill Sergeant and his blog is called An American Soldier. You know, I've never heard of such a prolific Drill Sergeant that doesn't pepper his sentences with the words @#$!, @#%& or @#$^ing @#%...Anyway, Rob's a good read.

Stephen sent me this link to an interesting article by Michael Totten on Tech Central Station about Jacksonians, Hamiltonians, and Wilsonians.

Jen Martinez has the story of Sergeant Walters - a soldier who fought like hell when the 507th Maint. Company was ambushed (Jessica Lynch's unit). You should read Jen's links to her other posts about this American hero.

If you haven't visited Joe Ham, yet. You're in for a LYAO-treat.

Speaking of laughing, the Laughing Wolf has a serious and thoughtful post about the summative origins of our current struggle.

Teresa of Technicalities has an informative post about that liberal media.

This post is too funny to come from Chip (see number 37). Must be Wind Rider in disguise...

Don't Know How I Missed This...

...oh, wait, I do know. I had the Mother of All Hang-Overs.

Anyway, Harvey at Bad Money has a post about what happened to me, Harvey and Mike the Marine on St. Patrick's Day.

Here's a bit from it:

Mike: That near-death-experience has made me thirsty. I'm going up to the bar for a beer.

Matty [smirking knowingly]: Just a plain old BEER? On this, the most sacred drinking night of 2004?

Mike: Oh, not just any beer. The darkest, Irishest, most precioussssss beer of them all...

Harv: Budweiser?

Matty: [WHACK!] Blasphemer!

Harv: OW! What? Michelob?

Mike: Matty, kill him slowly

Matty: Right.

Harv: Geez, put down the pig-sticker, Matty! Guinness! Guinness!

Matty: Hey look! Harv just figured out how to keep from acquiring a third nostril!

Mike: Brilliant!

Matty: Brilliant!

So, as you can see, it's both funny and 'brilliant'. And it ain't too far from the truth...just ask Uncle Ben, he was there. Phil, too, but he had to get poured into a cab at about 10PM.

Famous Wills On-Line At British Archives

I saw a piece on CBS News Sunday Morning about famous wills on-line at the British Archives.

William Shakespeare's will is free (PDF file)

Here are a few others that are available for a few Pounds:

Sir Francis Drake, Lord Horatio Nelson, Lord George Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sir Francis Bacon, Edmund Burke, Winston Churchill, Samuel Johnson, William Penn, Captain James Cook, George Frederic Handel, Jane Austen, Oliver Cromwell, and various monarchs, royalty, poets, playrights, and military men.

We're All Gonna Die

Hopefully, that's not news to you.

Anyway, there is some evidence in England that we are headed for the sixth extinction on this planet. When I was an undergrad, I minored in Archeology (Biblical) because I find this stuff fascinating. When I'm rich and retired, I'll need an interesting hobby to keep me busy so I chose archeology.

Sixth big extinction may be coming
BY PAUL RECER
WASHINGTON -- A steep decline in birds, butterflies and native plants in Britain supports the theory that humans are pushing the natural world into the Earth's sixth big extinction event and the future may see more animal species disappearing.

In an effort that sent more than 20,000 volunteers into every corner of England, Scotland and Wales to survey wildlife and plants, researchers found that many native populations are in big trouble, and some are gone altogether.
<...>
Thomas said that some past extinctions killed more than 90 percent of all life forms and ''nobody is suggesting we are at that point.''

But, he said, ''if this goes on for the foreseeable future then within a short period in geological time we will be getting toward the level of a major extinction.''

Whew! Glad he added that we have some time yet...

Friday Foray...A Bit Late Today

1. First, the beautiful Jennifer has an interesting interview with Jack of Radom Fate and co-founder of We The People.

2. Speaking of We The People, Donnie tells us that my old pal, Eric "Traitor Bitch" Blumrich, is at it again.

3. Feste at Fool's Blog takes a look at how much Defense business is headed towards the Bay area. Funny how that's the one area that is the most anarchistic and anti-Bush...

4. This is great. I have gotten six infected emails from moveon.org today. One of them said that I was a bad, bad boy.

5. David Kaspar of Davids Medienkritik has a post about how German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refuses to help the US in Iraq but wants the US to support Germany's quest for a permanent seat in the UN security council.

6. Frequent commenter Bloodspite sent me to doc Russia's Bloodletting to see one post - but the fisk of John Kerry's Iraq speech today really deserves attention. Plus, it's always good to be reminded not to piss off doc Russia.

7. Teresa at Technicalities has a post about the lying journalist from USA Today. Jayson Blair meet Jack Kelley. Now kick each other in the ass...about one hundred times.

8. Jennifer Martinez thanks Poland for a great message from their President and their support. Apparently, the President doesn't agree with Spain...

9. Bobby Sr. sent this link to a GREAT piece about the War on Terror.

10. Visit the Babalu Blog to read a great post about Cuba and the anniversary of the encarceration of 75 political prisoners.

364 Days Away From St. Patrick's Day

I kid, I kid!

Will restore the original Blackfive template soon.

BTW, those Chaser things don't work. I either need to take more Chasers or do less drink fewer shots of Jameson.

What I Hate About Chicago...

I received an email recently from a New Yorker accusing me of being an ambassador for Chicago and wanted to know if there was anything that I hated about my hometown. Maybe, he's just jealous about our green river?

There is plenty that I dislike about Chicago, but two things come immediately to mind...

I hate Mimes. I hate Mimes like Frank J. hates Monkeys. I work and live close to Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I see Mimes all of the time. I really hate the guy that is painted up like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz and then does the Moonwalk. I walk past and he gets insulted because I don't throw a few dollars into his milk-crate donation box. Get a grip. This is Chicago, not Venice Beach.

Then, there's Bike Messengers. I used to be one when I was in college. So I don't hate 'em sooo much. But some of them are just plain nuts. We had one kill a pedestrian last year. And he didn't run him over with his bike, either.

I hit a Bike Messenger today with my truck. Or, to put it more accurately, a bike messenger hit me.

I was exiting my garage onto to a oneway street. I took a quick look right for any pedestrians on the sidewalk, then looked left for any oncoming traffic and merged onto the street.

A bike messenger was barrelling down the wrong way on my street. So, when I moved out into traffic, I pulled out in front of him and he tried to stop.

It was icy this morning. He slid head first into the passenger side of my truck. BANG!

I stop and look right at him. He starts pounding on the side of my truck. He's pissed. Really pissed.

I get out. "Hey, buddy, are you okay?"

He takes off fast, swearing at me and yelling that I deserved the dent he put in my truck. He's going the wrong way up a busy street, again. A car almost hit him because he was busy screaming at me over his shoulder and wasn't paying attention.

My best friend (and godfather of Little Blackfive) is an auto-body mechanic - one of the best in town - so dents don't really matter to me. No stress for me, but that guy is gonna drop dead from apoplexy.

So, there you go. I hate Mimes and Bike Messengers.

One Day Away From St. Paddy's Day

An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman each order a Guiness in a pub. Upon being served, each finds a fly in their beer. Repulsed, the Englishman sends his back. The Scotsman gently flicks the fly out of his mug and begins drinking. The Irishman, carefully lifts the fly up by its wings and screams, "Spit it out! Spit it out!"

Here are the Seven, Six, Five, Four and Three Days Away From St. Paddy's Day Posts.

And the Winner Is...

So back on this post, I said that I would compile an informal survey of reader's impressions of Countries that produce the best Bar Brawlers.

I received 46 emails and quite a few good stories. Here are the winning Countries That Produce the Best Bar Brawlers:

In a razor-thin victory, by one vote, the winner is...South Africa!
2. Australia
3. America
4. Scotland
5. New Zealand
6. Ireland
7. England
8. Canadians (not Quebec)

Honorable mentions:
Samoa (gotta say that I, too, have known some tough Samoans - all Tank Loaders)
Wales
Denmark
Poland

Here are just some highlights from the best stories (well, from the ones I can print and not be called upon to incriminate people):

1. Macbeau (former SF from Savannah, GA) sends this gem about Aussies:

SWORDS will be outlawed from July under new laws to curb the growing use of the weapons in street brawls.

Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said the ban would help police overcome a culture of young people arming themselves with swords.

"For most people running around the street carrying swords there is absolutely no reason for them to be carrying those weapons," he said yesterday.

So the Aussies have some strangely violent idiosyncrasies. Have you ever seen Australian Rules Football?

2. Jim H., a former SF Weapons Sergeant sends in this gem:

You wrote about which nationalities are most suited to the art of the brawl and while I think Samoans win hands down, the best inter-national scrap I witnessed was at the Nijmegen Marches in Holland. I was stationed in Germany and was training to go to the Q course and thought that walking 30 miles a day for 4 days in a row in July would be good prep.

One day we left at the same time in the morning as a team from the Royal Army Paras It was a glorious day and the Dutch were all out along the route, we all felt great when we got back to the compound where troops from 30 countries were camped together. In true warrior fashion we decided to march directly into the beer tent and dropped rucks at our tables and ordered many Heinekens. Things progressed and an Aussie team marched in and did the same at the next table ordering and enjoying many beers. At some point one of the Brits decide to climb the rib of the tent, which was about 25 feet at the peak, and hung the Union Jack to the cheers of all nations in the tent. He then climbed back down and was rewarded with………Yes Beer.

More teams came in, more beer was drunk and at some point an enterprising Aussie decided to add their Green Bay Packer-looking flag to the display and started up the same rib the Brit had climbed before to the hearty cheers of the crowd below. He made the peak and hung the flag as the crowd went wild, then rather than just climb down, he cut loose the Union Jack and it was on. Two Brits started from opposite sides of the rib and were climbing up to dismember the offender, the rest of both teams cut loose and there was wicked good brawling. When the Brits got close to the Aussie at the peak he decided to cut himself loose and just crashed on top of the brawl and of course the Brits would not be outdone and followed suit. We neutral Americans picked up our beers and stepped to the edge so as not to take any collateral damage.

3. Matt from beautiful Brisbane, Australia, writes about his fellow countrymen in combat in East Timor:

A few years ago when Australia & NZ got involved in East Timor fighting Indonesian-backed militias, an SAS patrol was ambushed by the militia. As the story goes, one of our guys was hit in the neck. After getting over the initial surprise, he checked that the wound was not immediately life-threatening, then proceeded to return fire and killed the guy that hit him.

4. Eric, former Marine and the Straight White Guy, defines Meximo and tells a great story about it:

....I've got two recommendations..... I saw a fight in The Old Bank Bar in Dundee, Scotland once.... it was between two drunk Dundonians and three Turkish longshoremen... neither of the Dundee guys were more than 180 and 5 foot 6... and they kicked ass in a major way...

...having said that... a Marine I served with....LCpl Lou M., a Meximo (his mother was from Mexico, and his Dad was Eskimo) beat the living shit out of 4 Scots in Montrose... and, when they finally ran out of the bar, he chased them 3 miles on foot.. I met him as I was driving into town... they were running down the road about 30yds in front of him, and he was in hot pursuit.... heh... he was one mean bastard...

...so, from my own personal experience, crossing a Mexican and an Eskimo creates a pretty mean combination... but, Tennessee Hillbillies, and guys from Dundee OR Glasgow.. can usually hold their own...

5. John W., a retired Marine 1stSgt relays this tale:

I was with the 11th MEU comming out of Mogadishu in 95 on the U. S. S. Denver. We pulled into Mombassa, Kenya for a weeks Liberty. The first night there we got into a brawl with a bunch of swabbies in a place called the Florida Club. Fists were flying between the Marines and Sailors when the Kenyans tried to break it up, both groups turned on them and beat the snot out of a bunch of Kenyans. We were confined to the ship the rest of the time in port.

We set sail for Perth from there and got two weeks down under. Everybody knew not to mess with the Aussies. Ah the memories.

Monday Blog Menagerie

Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost has an interesting post about a Geek Draft.

In case you haven't seen it yet, Bill Whittle at Eject! Eject! Eject! has a new piece posted.

The Laughing Wolf and Baldilocks have some interesting thoughts about Spain.

Harvey of Bad Money writes about the USS Midway:

The USS Midway, which, unlike John Kerry, served with HONOR in Vietnam and expressed NO regrets afterwards, will soon be opening as a museum in San Diego.

And Mike the Marine has the details about the USS Midway.

Tenth Planet Found

This via the Discovery Channel web site:

Possible Tenth Planet Found
By Discovery News

March 15, 2004 —NASA later on Monday will announce the discovery of what could be the tenth planet in our solar system.

The rocky world, orbiting the sun out beyond Pluto, is about three-quarters the size of Pluto, between 800 and 1,100 miles in diameter, according to news reports.

Heh. I hereby name this dsicovery "The Kucinich Planet".

Three Days Away From St. Paddy's Day

I am a northsider and a Cubs fan. Two things at odds with my Irish kin on the south side...

Today is the Chicago South Side Irish Parade. Here is a link to a History Channel page about the history of St. Patrick's Day parades (they go back to 1762).

In honor of the Fighting Illini (and right now they are losing to Wisconsin!), here is a picture from 2002's parade:

Via the Chicago Sun-Times, here's some lyrics from the South Side Irish Band:

Writeen in 1984 by singer Terry McEldowney and guitar players Tom Black and Tom Walsh, the song alternately boasts about the South Side and bashes the North, as in this verse and chorus:

"We sing the songs our fathers sang when they were growing up, rebel songs of Erin's Isle in the South Side Irish pubs, and when it comes to baseball -- we have two favorite clubs, the go-go White Sox . . . and whoever plays the Cubs.

"We're the South Side Irish as our fathers were before, we come from the Windy City and we're Irish to the core, from Bridgeport to Beverly from Midway to South Shore, we're the South Side Irish -- let's sing it out once more."

UPDATE: Apparently, I am drawing the ire of the Laughing Wolf - appropriately so I think. I used to rally miss St. Paddy's Day when I was stationed over seas. My college buddies sent me a corned beef and cabbage dinner from the Abby to me in Turkey once. It made it through customs somehow...

I am also thinking about live blogging St. Paddy's Day from Govnor's Pub but I don't want some amateur drinking spilling on my laptop. What a waste that would be - the alcohol, I mean.

Here are the Seven, Six, Five, and Four Days Away From St. Paddy's Day Posts

Some Blogs to Visit

If you haven't visited I Love Jet Noise, you should visit today. Joatmof links to a story of a courageous Marine (as if there are any other kind).

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has a great roundup of Money Quotes about Spain. My favorite is Stephen Green's quote.

Sarah at the Organic Baby Farm has a post about military spouses.

For Spoons and Laura

Since I was snapping photos of the river, I thought I would take this one, too, for Spoons and Laura.

Four Days Away From St. Paddy's Day

"Too much of anything is good for nothing. Too much good whiskey is barely enough." - Irish toast
(Photo - www.bushmills.com)

Since one of the St. Paddy's Day post was about Guinness, I thought this one should have at least a picture of Bushmills.

I will try to update this post with pictures of the Chicago River later. It was dyed green this morning at about 11am. The usual saying around dying the Chicago River is, "If they dye it green one day per year, why can't they dye it blue the other 364?"

I had the Mrs. and Little Blackfive with me. Tried to take pictures but apparently Little Blackfive had been playing with the camera and left it on - the battery was dead. So I am recharging and will get some pictures in a few hours. At least it was a digital camera so no film was used.

Update: Here's the Chicago River, kelly green. Looking west towards the Michigan Avenue bridge and the Chicago Sun-Times Building.

Seven, Six, and Five Days Away From St. Paddy's Day Posts

Five Days Away From St. Paddy's Day

Northern Illiniois University has a hilarious PR release about chemistry geeks celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

Come celebrate St. Patrick's Day with NIU Chemistry
DeKalb, Ill.--The NIU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry invites the public to an evening of chemistry demonstrations beginning at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 17, in Faraday Hall 144.

"We can't promise anything like the commercials that Guinness has been running recently," said Michael Spires, coordinator for recruitment and public relations in the department. "But in honor of the season, some of the experiments to be performed this semester will feature either alcohol or the color green."

Many of the demonstrations will feature color changes, and one planned experiment will produce sparks under water. Another will demonstrate the most common method of determining the caloric content of food, immersing it in liquid potassium chlorate.

"I understand that the cheese puffs produce a spectacular display," Spires added.

Some of the experiments planned for the evening may involve loud noises and produce some smoke or unpleasant smells and may not be appropriate for small children.

To ensure the safety of the audience and the presenters, flash photography is not permitted. At least for some experiments, members of the audience may be asked to leave their seats and move away from the demonstration area, again for safety reasons.

Here are the Seven and Six Days Away From St. Paddy's Day Posts.

Listening to...

...for some odd reason, French language filled music. The artists aren't French.

The Police - Hungry for You (J'aurias Toujours Faim De Toi)

And

Poi Dog Pondering - Ta Bouche Est Tabou (French Remix)

I just noticed that I was doing that. Weird. Both songs (and groups) are among my all-time favorites. Wonder if there are any others (using French, not French groups) out there that I am missing?

Anyone?

Every Day Is Flag Day In Afghanistan

Reader Marty sent me a link via email. The father of blogger Dave Vause (of Head Chair) is flying missions in Afghanistan. Here's a bit from Head Chair.

...He told me about how they have these flags that they take on combat missions. When they capture Taliban or Al Queda fighters, they are brought back to the base and kept in a 10' X 10' holding cell with these flags covering every wall. They are made to sit in this cell for 9 hours and 11 minutes before they are brought in to be interrogated.

Visit Head Chair to read the whole post.

New Blogger on the Loose

Tammi, an intelligent and bold commenter on several sites, has finally got herself a blog - Road Warrior Rules for Survival. Look for good things to come out of RWRfS.

Six Days Away From St. Paddy's Day!

In continuing the Blackfive tradition of cutting edge journalism celebrating the nectar of the gods, I thought we'd discuss Guinness today. I have two favorites beers to consume - Harp and Guinness. I like Harp for serious all-night drinking and I like Guinness for when I drink less than 5 pints in one sitting. Food choices can vary my choice as well.

Jennifer had a great post about this awesome commercial (Broadband link for Windows Media Player) that aired a few months ago. You have to watch it. It is a dream come true.

A friend of Jen's was offended. Read the comments. People equating African-Americans and Crack abuse with Irish and drinking problems is absolutely ridiculous. Crazy.

I would say that a low, low percentage of African-American use crack. But I would put the percentage of Irishmen who are complete soaks at about 99.5% (0.5% are probably in AA or having liver transplants).

"Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy..."

Update 12:45PM CST: A German reader sends this as an alternative (The Evil Leprechaun). It has some Irish-accented foul language so use caution if at work. As an Irishman, I found it quite humorous. Leprechauns are real bastards, if you know what I mean.

More on Kerry in Chicago

More from the Chicago Tribune:

...Though he always has opposed the death penalty, Sen. John Kerry said Tuesday that the Sept. 11 attacks made him realize that he would want to "blow Osama bin Laden's brains out."

Okay, so now we have to add OBL to the list of people Kerry would kill:

1. Unarmed People in Free Fire Zones.
2. OBL

So, Osama, watch out! Don't stroll around, unarmed, in any Vietnamese villages on the Mekong river.

One Week Away From St. Patrick's Day

Paddy O'Tatertot here to discuss a religious holiday.

Ah, St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, I know I'll get some comments that St. Patrick's Day in New York, Boston or Chicago brings out the worst amateur drinkers known to man. That maybe true, but I don't let 'em spoil a fine holiday.

I still love it here in Chicago the most. Sure Boston and New York have good celebrations. But in Chicago, we dye our river Green. Beat that, Boston!

Chicago has not just one St. Patrick's Day Parade but three. Downtown. Southside Irish. And Northwest Irish. I'm probably missing some other smaller ones.

What's the difference between the Southside Irish and the Northwest Irish? About 135 degrees...I kid, I kid!
Really, there isn't much difference. It just gives us yet another parade to watch and excuse to drink. Hell, we Irish would celebrate Spleen Day with a Harp or Guiness if such a day existed.

So look for more on the holiday about St. Patrick - the patron saint of Guiness! - in the coming days.

The Call (aka Why The Lite Posting)

Sorry for the lack of posting.

Last night, a good friend of mine, Kiang, called me at 10:30pm. Everyone who knows me, knows not to call late because Little Blackfive is sleeping. So, I knew it must be important.

A little back-story: Kiang and I have known each other for a few years. We met in grad school at the U of Chicago ("Where Fun Comes To Die!"). At the end of a guest lecture, Kiang stood up and asked if any of his fellow grad students were headed downtown - he needed a lift. I said sure. He asked if I could take him to the Gold Coast? I said sure. He asked if I was going anywhere near Elm? I said sure, that I lived on Elm. He said 411 East? I said that's where I live. He said 15th floor? I said 1523. He lived in 1510.

So, over the course of some hellacious coursework and our proximity to each other, we became very good friends. In fact, you could say that he was responsible for me even attempting some of the tougher projects at school. He helped me a lot. I got him his first job out of grad school. He was a big Cubs fan, too. We go running together. We have breakfast with my son every Sunday. What more do you need to know?

Back to the story: so last night, Kiang says in a hurry, "Matt, I am getting married tomorrow at 2pm. I want you to be the Best Man. Can you do it?"

"Sure."

"Okay, I'll send you an Evite. Thank, Matt. I really mean it. Thanks."

*Click*

This morning, I tell Mrs. Blackfive what happened. She is pissed.

"Matty, why in the hell don't you ever ask any questions?!"

"What?"

She looks at me, all frustrated, "You know what I mean. Why is Kiang getting married, now?"

"I don't know. He was in a hurry. If he wanted me to know, he would have told me."

Our little spat didn't end there. Essentially, she always gets mad at me because I don't pry into my friends lives unless the invitation is there. Plus, Kiang is Malaysian and pretty cagey. I figured something must be up (maybe his girlfriend - they live together - lost her job and might get deported? Or she's pregnant?) and, if he wanted to tell me, he would have. All I know is that he asked me to be there and I'll be there.

We are pals. Friends.

Is that so hard to figure out?

What is it with women having to know EVERYTHING?

Update: I posted some details here.
/Rant

Updates

1. My wife alerted me to a story on CBS's Sunday Morning about blogs and how they have affected and will affect the elections. I was deeply offended when Blackfive was not mentioned....just kidding. Most of the focus was on MoveOn.crap and rightmarch.com. I had never heard of RightMarch so I found it interesting.

No mention of Instapundit or Atrios.

2. Getting lots of bar brawling stories from many sources. So far, I have been amazed that I have gotten about 15% of responses from Aussies! Cool. Apparently, most Austalians agree with my comment at Serenity's Journal...go figure.

3. Here are some sites to check out today (the comments around a lot of the posts are great reads, too):

We The People (I actually received a few emails from my post on amending the constitution decrying me for a liberal)

Right Wing News (The Orin Hatch amendment post is interesting.)

Insults Unpunished (Robert Prather)

Outside the Beltway (James Joyner)

4. Yesterday, some guy, that lives above my condo, came home and found that his wife committed suicide and threw himself out of his 20th floor condo. I have been up last night with police because I saw a body plumit past my 15th floor window and can put a timeframe on the whole thing...Don't worry about me. Seen worse.

I do have one question though: Why the hell do the cops and firemen think it's okay to leave a big blood stain on the sidewalk? Really. I want to know. The smear is not even cordoned off.

I'm going to sleep for a bit. Then, I am going to work on a Europe-John Kerry post for this afternoon.

5. Son of OBL deputy is caught and, apparently, is spilling the beans on Al Qaeda.

The Hierarchy of Countries that Produce Bar Brawlers

There is a hierarchy in the world of bar brawls. I have some experience in this area.

Awhile back, I posted a comment on Serenity's blog about countries which produce the toughest-bar-brawling-bastards known to Man. You can see some of my ideas for candidate countries there. Also, I posted in the "Blackfive - Paratrooper of Foul Language" voice, so it's not quite cricket or for my readers in Mrs. Johnson's sixth grade class.

If you have experience or have witnessed said phenomenon, please email me. I will compile the results and post next week.

Friday Foray

1. Frank J. has a new In My World post and here's a great quote from it:

"We're Marines," Buck explained, "We only judge people by whether they're American of foreign... and, if they are foreign, we don't judge them long cause they dead."

2. Teresa at Technicalities found John Kerry's voting record. It's like Halle Berry behind the wheel - all over the freakin' place.

Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost has a similar post but points to a Slate chart of Kerry's stances on issues. It is schitzophrenic.

3. Ah, I knew Heather would weigh in on the stupidity of the media on McDonald's Supersize reduction. 5% of McDonald's customers supersize their meals. Big whoop. If you are fat and order supersize, I don't think it's McDonald's evil marketing that made you eat it. Favorite John Wayne quote applies here: "Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid."

In support of Heather and other St. Louisans, here is a new headline: St. Louis Italian Eatery, Rigazzi's, to stop selling Schooners of beer. (You get a pint for the same price)

4. David Kaspar's Medienkritik has a poll in Speigel for you to take - it's about President Bush.

5. Brian J. Noggle has issues with MSN's list of women who changed the world. He offers his own list. Enjoy.

6. Some of you might know that I occasionally house sit for Darren Kaplan. He's not clueless about it. Not like that Ted Rall idiot. Did I say idiot? Sorry. I meant clueless asswipe.

7. If you have never been to Tim Oren's Due Dilligence, now is the time. He has a really interesting post about politics and technology in relation to the War on Terror.

8. This is important. Greyhawk of the Mudville Gazette reminds us to sign a petition for President Bush to award the Medal of Freedom to Rick Rescorla.

9. Jason at Iraq Now has an interesting post. It sounds like when I used to travel from West Germany into East Germany in 1992 after the reunification. It was one Germany but there was a huge difference. Same resources, different regimes.

10. QandO has a post on Mexican-American assimilation. I think it's interesting stuff and QandO (as usual) has some great observations.

11. Carnival of the Vanities is up at Dodgeblogium. Check out the best of the blogosphere. You might find some blogs that you like and haven't read before.

12. Texas could have a Kinky governor. If so, Harvey might move out of Milwaukee and head South.

13. Sarah has a speech for President Bush to give - it WOULD be very interesting to hear both the reaction from the Democrats afterwards and the reaction from the countries mentioned. Indeed. Heh. And all that other stuff to indicate smugness.

Wednesday Warp

Jack at We the People has a good read on what labels really mean.

Aha! I always knew that Trey Givens (VW owner) was a Lincoln Park Trixie!

Eric the Straight White Guy has a good post about deployment to Iraq and what it will mean when more and more National Guardsmen and Reservists will be called up.

Hey, the party is raging over at Madfish Willie's - The Bartender is gonna shut her down, but not before we're done.

Darren Kaplan's not buying the CNN report that John Kerry and Terry McAuliffe are at odds with each other.

Michael Moore Squashed...

If you didn't see Michael Moore get squashed by the Oelephant (the battle of Pelinor Fields in the Return of the King) at the Oscars tonight you missed something good...

"You Hobbits started a ficticious war!"

SQUASH!

Dunkin Donut stock plumets...

update: 748PM CST - Tim Robbins wins Best Supporting Actor...I'm waiting for the politics...he took the opportunity to talk about abuse and to ask those who are abused to seek help. Nice and classy gesture.

update: 8Pm CST - can't breathe. crying from laughing so hard. Robbin Williams doing a French Mini Mouse smoking a cig and expressing ennui about Freedom Fries. Finding Nemo wins Best Animated Picture.

Okay, gonna stop the blogging the Oscar thing. The Michael Moore squashing just was too SWEET not to blog!

Friday Foray

Good day to you...I FEEEEL GREEAAAT!

Here's what happened at Madfish Willie's last night...it features Harvey.

If you haven't over to Argghhh!, you should check out why Low Tide Landings Suck. LMAO.

More to follow...update:8PM CST

Laughing Wolf has an interesting post about NASA and the intersection of goals of the Department of Defense and NASA.

David Kaspar at Medienkritik has an interesting post about Iraqi immigration trends to Germany.

Just the other night Mr. Green and I were having a few beers at Happy Hour, and I remarked, "Damn, Mr. Green, you are one sexy man!" Now, I know why...

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has a story about SSG Wolford who received a Silver Star for his actions almost a year ago in Iraq.

Susie, a movie insider, tells us how movies actually get put up on the big screen.

Apologies

I know that I haven't been posting as much as usual and pointing out what I think is the best on the blogosphere. I hope to resume that tomorrow. So in the meantime, please check out the blogroll (plus Doc at Far from Perfect has Someone You Should Know).

I have going through a lot at work. It's good, just a lot to deal with. All at the same time, my department's expanding and I let some key people go that weren't happy working here. So, what little free time I have has been spent building train tracks with my son.

And, with everything at work going on, I also have the sort of "job opportunity" that Smash had a year ago. It may or may not work out. Technically, it's not supposed to be possible, but the organization that I used to work for, being what it is, doesn't really give a flying @#$% about the rules.

All Along the BlogoSphere

First off, James Joyner of Outside the Beltway has recently found himself free of employment. I hit his tip jar this morning. You should too...

Next, John Hawkins has his Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Dinner Guests From Hell posted. I was asked to participate but because of events beyond my control this weekend, I was unable to participate. It's a great list. The top ten is what I would have had except for Chomsky. Just didn't think about him.

Aaron of Rantblog has put the finishing touches on the Blogopoly gamepiece for Blackfive. It's appropriate.

Check out We The People (of which I am a contributing writer). Jack has an interesting piece on a doctored John Kerry photo that's made it's way around the blogosphere.

Turn Right at the Light has a Dear John letter joke that I found humorous...especially, since I got a Dear John letter while stationed in Iraq/Turkey in 1991.

Tasty Manatees has a new video posted. It sums up my feelings quite nicely. It's about Peace.

Jennifer Martinez has a story about Donald Rumsfeld and the Oklahoma National Guard...in Ireland.

Heather of Angelweave just changed the way I think about *ahem* Googling Blackfive. Anyway, she needs to stop Googling herself or she'll never finish those bookreviews.

Juliette of Baldilocks gets an email from the "I-Take-Every-Damn-Thing-You-Say, Seriously" Guy/Girl?. BTW, I don't really care for reality shows like Survivor, but I loved the Amazing Race and tried to get my father-in-law to team up with me for it.

So-called Game-on!

Sins of the father...

Should not be cast upon the son. Who am I talking about? Chicago Mayor Daley? Read on to find out.

About two years ago, my wife and I were a Boston Blackie's. It a restaurant by our condo. It's been around for decades and it's had the same small menu for all that time. Their mantra is to do just a few things great.

And they do. They have one of the best burgers that you can get in Chicago.

My wife and I were regulars there for years until the birth of our son changed our freewheeling ways a bit. The staff knew us, and we always had the same waitress - Bonnie.

On the night I am writing about, Boston Blackies was packed. It was in the middle of the week. I remember wondering if there was a convention or something going on nearby. We had to wait for a table. The host kept apologizing for the wait, and I kept telling him that I was glad his business was good that night.

Finally, a table for six was available. My wife and I took it, ordered dinner, and started eating. That's when the host came up to us and asked us to move to a table for two.

He was very sorry. He had a family that was in a hurry and hoped that we wouldn't mind.

We didn't mind moving at all. The host had what seemed like forty people come and move our plates and drinks just a few feet from our original table. The host buys a round for our trouble. Everybody's happy.

In walks the family to sit down. Everyone is fascinated by these people but they don't seem to notice the stares. The father laughs at the older of the three boys and tousles his hair. The boy says something like 'quit it' and commences fixing his hair. The man holds the chair for his wife. He's all about the family. He looks too old to be the father of those kids. Then, he notices me looking at them and comes over to me and Mrs. Blackfive.

He apologizes for us moving for his family, thanks us, and asks if he could pay for our dinner. I tell him that we didn't mind and got drinks in the deal, anyway. He looks a little embarassed and tells me that he already took care of our tab, and, again, thanks us for moving. I tell him thanks and have a great night. My wife says a polite thank you and he goes back to his family.

Everybody in the restaurant was staring at us, now.

Mel Gibson just bought us dinner.

The host later explained to me that "Mr. Gibson eats here whenever he's in Chicago" (um, sure).

The things I noticed were that he was really happy with his family, he seemed very sincere and very nice. Of course, Mel Gibson and I didn't have an in-depth discussion about politics and religion and morality. He didn't become my new best friend.

With all of the focus on Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ", his crazy father is getting more attention - Gibson's father believes that the Holocaust did not happen.

Mel Gibson has stated that, while he loves his father, he doesn't agree with his father's politics. But certain groups still are concerned that the "Passion of the Christ" will fan the fires of anti-semitism.

Have any of you seen the movie and felt that way? Hopefully, I will get a chance to check it out.

Smile! It's More Media Bias!

Glenn Reynolds - Comedian Pundit. I found this particular entry at Instapundit hilarious:

IS THE JOHN EDWARDS CAMPAIGN REALLY "WHOLLY FUNDED by the trial lawyers"? That's what John Kerry's press secretary, Stephanie Cutter, is quoted as saying in the New York Times. And, since the Times story provides no contradictory information, and it's the New York freakin' Times, I guess it must be true, right?

Maybe I'll go donate a buck to Edwards, just so that he'll have gotten at least one dollar from somewhere else. Odd that it hasn't happened before. . .

And Teresa at Technicalities has a similar take on an AP story about Laura Bush's opinion on Gay Marriage.

The AP Headline on my Yahoo page screams : Laura Bush Says Gay Marriage 'Shocking' .

Shall we read on, beyond the headline, to see what she REALLY said?

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Laura Bush says gay marriages are "a very, very shocking issue" for some people, a subject that should be debated by Americans rather than settled by a Massachusetts court or the mayor of San Francisco.

Amazing isn't it, how if you change a word or an emphasis, you can make the headline completely misleading - one might almost say it's... a lie. To say that some people find gay marriage to be shocking is hardly the same thing as her actually saying that gay marriage is shocking. In fact, it's not the same thing AT ALL. So, AP tries to pin her down...

You should read the rest of her post.

And David Kaspar at Medienkritik has a post about the Australian Intel Chief declaring the Iraq War unjustified - except that the Australian Intel Chief never said/claimed that...And David has the government transcripts to prove it.

Then, if you haven't seen it, there's my post at We The People about the Chicago Tribune making a Storm out of a wise-crack by one soldier. Actually, I've never, ever known anyone in the military to ever exhibit sarcasm...

Listening To...

...Lenny Kravitz - "Stillness of Heart".

When I started my current job in 2000, I had a meeting where we did one of those really dumb ice-breakers. The meeting facilitator started off with a question:

"If you died and could come back as someone famous, who would it be?"

There were lots of responses like:

Indignant Director: "I wouldn't want to be anyone except myself" Loser.

Pseudo-Feminist Director: "I would want to be Hillary Clinton." Big Loser.

Green Director: "I would come back as Ralph Nader." What?

Capitalist Director: "Bill Gates. Definitely, Bill Gates."

So, when it was my turn:

"Lenny Kravitz."

One guy looked at me and asked why?

"Because he's coooool."

No one got it. Lenny's got more talent and style in his big toe than I will ever have. He rocks. He plays the blues. They probably listen to Michael "No-Talent-Ass-Clown" Bolton.

I almost said, "Ok then, I pick Bruce Willis so I could kick your sorry asses and say something witty."

Blackfive Movie Review - 50 First Dates

Mrs. Blackfive and I saw 50 First Dates on Valentine's Day. We did the dinner and a movie date thing. It was great to get my pregnant wife out of the house for an afternoon and evening.

She wanted to see 50 First Dates. Here's my take on it:

1. It's a movie about a Vetrinarian (Sandler) at a Hawaii aquarium that falls in love with a woman (Berrymore) who lost her ability to create short or long term memories in an automobile accident, and her long-term memory is intact up to the point where she had an automobile accident. In other words, she wakes up everyday thinking that it is the day after her accident.

2. Berrymore and Sandler are cute. I commented to my wife that the studios are trying to make them the next Hanks/Ryan duo.

3. It's a bittersweet love story with a great premise, but the story falls a bit flat on the follow-through.

4. It's a chick-flick thinly guised as a comedy by allowing Sandler to throw in his usual gags. For instance, he plays a funny guitar song for her. There's plenty of weird humor and Sandler-shouts. It's forced and violently inserted into a love story. He doesn't come off as sweet as he did in The Wedding Singer.

5. Rob Schneider and Sean Astin were hilarious in this movie. Schneider plays a Hawaiian side-kick and Astin plays Berrymore's crazy body-building brother. The other Hawaiians in the movie are funny and quirky, too.

As far as date movies go, it's a good compromise. Otherwise, since there's no swords or explosions or paratroopers, wait for the rental.

Sunday MilBlogging

If you haven't visited the MilBlogs Post Exchange in awhile, you should go check it out now. There is a lot of information there - including military bloggers take on the Bush Guard record non-issue - and you may find some new blogs that you haven't seen before.

Speaking of MilBlogs - Greyhawk has a great post discussing the left's take on Bush's Air Guard service with the following excellent commentary:

Kos isn't stupid; does he think his readers are? And really, this isn't just about Kos - the whole left wing of the blogosphere has deposited DNA all over this. (I'm talking drool here.) Bloggers (who by now know the truth from Smash, Baldilocks, Blackfive, and a host of commenters at their own sites) know better, though as yet none have dared to link a MilBlogger on this issue.

The mainstream media, without any personal access to military people, may not.

And therein lies the bottom line, and why this is likely to rebound into the faces of the misguided individuals (be they DNC, mainstream media, or even bloggers) who want to perpetuate this. Each and every further utterance of these feeble claims, each denial of an explanation from a credible military source, simply illustrates the ignorance and contempt in which these people view the military.

Ironic, in that they are trying to demonstrate President Bush is not a qualified CinC. His current "Band of Brothers" (the very many registered absentee voters, including those such as me, an absentee Florida voter) are quite aware of the ignorance, and quite tired of the screed. And quite proud to serve under former Lt. George W Bush

I'll heartily second that sentiment. I am sure that most MilBloggers would agree.

Pineapple Fitting Candidate

If you saw Little Nicky (Adam Sandler movie), you might remember the gag about hell and Hitler's daily rectal pineapple fittings? Well, I found us a candidate(s) for a pineapple fitting.

'Do Not E-Mail' Site a Scam, U.S. Officials Say

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumers should not submit their e-mail addresses to a Web site that promises to reduce unwanted "spam" because it is fraudulent, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday.

Though the Web site found at (http://www.unsub.us) promises to reduce unsolicited commercial e-mail, those who sign up could end up receiving more spam than ever or even fall victim to identity theft, the FTC said.

The Web site uses the same color scheme and design elements as one maintained by the FTC to sign up consumers for the national "do not call" registry, which reduces unwanted telemarketing calls...

Seriously, how hard is it to track these bastards down? Welcome to Hell, here's your pineapple!

Thursday Blogosphere

Off the blog-beaten path: This is a cool blog. A DOD Civilian working in Korea is taking pictures of his Jeep Liberty around the country. The pictures are really well done.

Citizen Smash has a post about (the ramifiations of) Gay Marriage issues and activists, and, if you read my about page, then you would see why I agree with him. I haven't really blogged about the issue because all of the bloggers (who happen to be gay) talk about Gay Marriage every day.

Speaking of gay stuff, back in November, Mr. Green had a great post about the ridiculousness surrounding anti-gay laws. Alert: The language is a bit harsh.

AP is reporting that a National Guard soldier, who was getting ready to deploy to Iraq, is being held on suspision of spying for Al Qaeda. Oh, and by the way, the soldier charged with espionage - Specialist Ryan Anderson - had converted to Islam sometime during the last five years. But that has nothing to do with it...nope.

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has a post about Bush's National Guard record and his band of brothers.

Found this little gem via Spoons. It will predict any dictator or sitcom star based on questions and answers. It's pretty cool. I tried fooling it with similar sitcom star profiles - it could be Mike Seaver or it could be Alex P. Keaton - but the predictor nailed it.

Apologies

...for the light posting. Had a Quarterly Board meeting today. I'm still employed so everything seems to have gone okay.

The Directors loved the midget clowns!

More Blog stuff soon...

Socialist Speeding Ticket

This sign of how whacked the Fins are via Reuters:

Millionaire Hit with Record Speeding Fine
Tue Feb 10, 8:54 AM ET

HELSINKI (Reuters) - One of Finland's richest men has been fined a record 170,000 euros ($217,000) for speeding through the center of the capital, police said on Tuesday.

Jussi Salonoja, 27, heir to his family's sausage business, was caught driving 50 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone last Thursday, the police said.

Finnish traffic fines vary according to the offender's income and, according to tax office data, Salonoja's 2002 earnings were close to seven million euros.

The final penalty could still change when the case is eventually heard by a Helsinki court, as was the case with Nokia executive Anssi Vanjoki, whose 116,000-euro speeding fine was slashed by 95 percent in 2002 due to a drop in income.

If Salonoja's penalty stands, it will beat a speeding fine of more than 80,000 euros paid by Internet millionaire Jaakko Rytsola in 2000, and the 35,000-euro fine imposed on Nokia President Pekka Ala-Pietila in 2001 for running a red light.

Words fail to express the absolute disregard I have for Finland's penalty system...

Monday Menagerie

Jennifer Martinez has an update on the Chicago Tribune columnist that called for an end to flying the POW/MIA flag. He's supposed to write a column for Wednesday. Since his gimmick is being a jerk, I doubt that it will be an apology.

In order to stimulate the economy, I proprose National Drink Beer Day! - inspiration provided by Angelweave's post on Thailand's Eat Chicken Day.

Party at Darren Kaplan's blog. He's in Puerto Rico and we've taken some liberties with the blog...feel free to join in.

Juliette at Baldilocks has a great post about Class warfare and the military...

Feste at Fool's Blog has a great pic from the Carnivale in Viareggio, Italy.

Mamamontezz does the math on a Cyanide discovery in Iraq.

David Kaspar at Medienkritik has a post on Michael Moore and Germany.

Speaking of horrible wind-bag jackasses (Moore, not Kaspar), Stephen Den Beste has two posts on Jabba the Butt - post one on his new film and post two on why Moore is not a traitor. This new film sounds so horrible that I have a hard time believing that anyone (inlcuding the loony left) will buy into it's premise.

More to follow...

Susie at Practical Penumbra talks about the latest infection of Beal.

There's no money in blogging? Sacre Bleu! John Hawkins spells it out for you...

Molecular Cocktails and Drugs

A thank you to CNN for the idea for this post on what our drinks really look like...

This one's for Stephen Green - the Vodka Pundit.

This one's for me. So's this one.

This one's for Eric - the Straight White Guy, Paul at Sanity's Edge and Jack at Random Fate.

This one's for Donnie Hall - The Bejus Pundit.

This one's for Kate at Electric Venom.

No on to those who need something a bit more substantial:

This one's for Ted Rall.

This one's for Michael Moore - Wesley Clark's dealer.

This one's for everyone over at Dean For America. And one for Howard, too.

This one's for everyone over at the Democratic Underground.

One for Hillary. One for Bill.

{edit. note: I left out a bunch of people. I tried to include as many bloggers as I could based on what I remembered them posting about drinking...apologies if I left you out. I'll buy the next round.}

Friday Foray

Here's a cool story with the proof that it actually happened. Congrats to Clancy and GF!

Why didn't I blog about the idiot at the Chicago Sun-Times calling for an end to POW/MIA flags? Because there is no way that I could sum up my thoughts about it better than Jennifer Martinez. Well, maybe if I had a Flame Thrower to add a little emphesis...

Heather is a hockey maniac and might want to think of a sports writing career.

Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette has one of the best posts about Scott Ritter that I have seen in a long time.

Tim Russert gets to talk to the President on Sunday's Meet the Press (I try to watch it every week). Mr. Russert is a Democrat. Mr. Russert also has class. Atrios Echaton does not.

John Cole of Balloon Juice has a great post about the antics of the loony left with Robert Novak.

More to follow...Updated 9:45AM CST

David Kaspar reports the Germany's Chancellor Schroeder steps aside as head of the Social Democratic party. Don't know how long he can remain Chancellor after that news? Maybe, another box to stand on would help. Now, let's talk about Chirac...

German Prosecutor accuses US Justice Dept. for the aquital of an Al Qaeda suspect.

KaZaa offices raided in Australia. An Australian federal judge authorized the raid.

Bill Hobbs has an excellent piece on the Bush AWOL issue - seriously, I know that there's been a lot bandied about this topic on the blogosphere, but this post puts the last nail in the left-wing's AWOL-issue-coffin. Read it.

Laughing Wolf has a thoughtful post about the Media's lack of sound judgement.

Visit Donnie Hall - The Bejus Pundit. Lots of things happening over there...

Thursday Links

John Donovan at Argghhh! has an interesting post on how we should increase re-enlistments in our armed services - based on the Navy in 1779.

Tony the Oriental Redneck looks at Kerry then (1971) and now (2004). Go to "Kerry Inconsistencies On Veterans And Foreign Policy" if link is blogspotted.

James Joyner at Outside the Beltway has an interesting post about the Enlisted to Officer ratios in the Army. This subject's tough for me. I think about preferring

More to follow:

Best In Show is an awesome movie. Dog Shows crack me up. Ever since Triumph the Insult Comic Dog covered the "steamy underbelly" of the Westminster Dog Show (scroll down to Westminster Dog Show - 1999 and make sure that you also watch the Stars Wars Episode I video), I can't keep a straight face while watching one. Enjoy!

The "stars" of the dog show even get gift baskets - akin to those given to Oscar presenters. GET A LIFE PEOPLE!!!!

Even More to Follow:

Citizen Smash has the text of the apology from the asshat that went around selling Nuke technology to Iran and North Korea. I am assuming that he's still alive because (1) we need him to spill the beans on who was working for/with him and (2) he's the esteemed Father of the Islamic Bomb - meaning that there is too much pride to lose by executing him. (loss of pride)=(humiliation)=(no 72 virgins)=(you suck)

Tasty Manatees takes Jonah Goldberg to task on the issue of blogs and anonymity and pseudonymity. It's a great post - go read it. Glenn Reynolds, Roger Simon, and other "losers" have blogged about this same topic. It does look like the professionals are getting a little irritated with us amateurs...I think that they'll have to make exceptions for MilBloggers because, without pseudonymity, there wouldn't be many active duty bloggers - period.

Wednesday Warp

Citizen Smash has one excellent post about a Pass/Fail Test for those seeking the Presidency. AS usual, he speaks for me, too.

John Donovan says Happy Birthday to the USO - one of the finest organizations around. When I was an enlisted man, I spent many hours (even days) at the USO at SEATAC or Frankfurt or O'Hare etc. One lady at the USO in Newark paid for a call from me to my parents to let them know that I was coming home for Christmas. The USO really makes a difference.

Darren Kaplan has a post about Gay Marriage and John Kerry.

Wow! There is some really great writing going on over at Random Fate. Jack is posting his "Pleasant melancholy and the Black Pit of Despair" series. Part I: The seeds are sown Part II: The road has no signs and Part III: The chain is forged...Can't wait for Part IV.

The Honorary Mom of Blackfive (HMOB) - Teresa at Technicalities has a great post on the latest Dean speech. I thought when he said - "We're going to tell all those white boys who run the Republican Party to stay out of our bedrooms." - he was worried that Bill Clinton visiting a certain household in Vermont.

Eric the Straight White Guy is learning a new song...sounds good to me. I wonder if Eric knows Bugger Off? Him and me at the Abbey Pub - 3am - drinking scotch and singing screetching Bugger Off...

Tuesday Links

This via Instapundit - Davids Medienkritik - Politically Incorrect Observations on Reporting in the German Media By: David Kaspar:

In the past when we had a severe case of political rage we simply conquered France (in the morning; afternoon was free for sightseeing) to cool our temper. It's just not what it used to be...

There's more about Germans drinking less beer. I used to live in the town in Germany that had the highest per capita consumption of beer in the world. Back in the early 90's it was something like 2 liters per person per day. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this gem of a blog.

---

Found this on Google News - Oxygen seen streaming off exoplanet:

An international team of astronomers used Hubble in the autumn of 2003 to observe the planet HD 209458b, the only extrasolar planet already known to have an atmosphere.

It's not habitable, just has an atmosphere. The article is kind of interesting.

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Jennifer Martinez has a Special Forces graduation ceremony speech from an SF legend.

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Anticipatory Retaliation has a list that I had seen before. It's a good one from U.S. Army Specialist Schwartz. And it's worth reading again.

207. The Chicken and Rice MRE is *not* a personal lubricant. (Skippy wanted this noted for the record that this is not something he has ever attempted or considered! It was something we heard at dinner on 22 September 2001 and it was just so obscene it had to go here.)

The other 212 are even more hilarious.

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John Donovan has one helluva story about Chaplains in WWII. I know I've talking about Chaplains lately. They are just as needed, sometimes, as medics.

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Mike the Marine has an interesting post about the Super Bowl and a Cubs - Red Sox World Series. Mike, come to Chicago for a Cubs game, we'll get together, have a few laughs...

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Dana at Note-It Posts has a disturbing Dean screed. The yell was one thing, but this is just plain bad. Bad for a stupid, no-talent, white boy.

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More on the Intelligence Inquiry from James Joyner. Definitely worth the read.

Absolutely Stupid Talking Heads...

I'm sitting here, sipping from a glass of Johnny Walker Gold, and watching the 10PM NBC Chicago news.

It's been cold here, really cold, but not like the last chill up in the Northeast. Cold enough that I stayed home today and stripped wallpaper.

The broadcaster lady, Anna Davlantes, says: :The cold weather is causing complications for the city, especially for those without heat."

...

...

...especially for those without heat?

Sip of Scotch.

...Really?

My Kind of Place...

I always love a pub when it gives you that something extra. Food, peanuts, free shots are all good.

I also like pubs and bars that recognize their good customers. Years ago, when US Army Officer's Clubs were actually used for boozing, there would always be a plaque with some Warrant Officer's name on a bar stool where the guy sat every single night for three or four years (until his tour was over).

My favorite pubs and bars in Chicago always take care of a good customer: Durkin's, Dublin's, Pippin's, O'Neil's, Dugan's, Kincade's (anyone else noticing a trend here?), Marie's Riptide Lounge, and my all-time favorite - The Burwood Tap. But none of them, NOT ONE, do this for their customers:

Pub Offers Regulars a Pint and a Plot
Fri Jan 30, 9:27 AM ET - United Kingdom

A game of darts or a packet of peanuts are what most British pubs sell customers to go with their beer, but one landlord is offering them something rather more lasting -- a final resting place.

Regulars at the Church Inn need not leave their favorite drinking spot even when their time on Earth is up, because landlord Julian Taylor has turned a field next door into a cemetery.

"The idea came about when my dad was ill," said Taylor, who bought the country pub near the northern city of Manchester 11 years ago.

"We are in a beautiful spot at the top of a hill and he said he'd like to be buried looking down into the valley."

Locals liked the idea and have started buying plots themselves, he told Reuters.

"One regular has even asked his friends to take their pints out into the cemetery on Friday nights after he dies -- in memory of his happy nights in the pub," Taylor said.

Kind of adds a twist to the "Absent Companions" toast from the military...you can actually go out back and toast them.

Around the blogosphere

I haven't been able to do too much linking to interesting posts this week (due to work and hang overs and letter writing to the Asshats at the Chicago Tribune). Here are some posts that I found interesting:

Pejmanesque expresses some disdain for the planning of a Congressional visit to Iran. I don't get it, either. Not that Arlen Specter has ever been long on great ideas, but I don't the Bush Administration is happy about this. And we may wind up with some kidnapped Congressmen. Hey! Wait a minute! Maybe that's why GW ain't protesting this one, too much. Hhhmmm...

Pejman also talks about why he likes Edwards over Kerry.

I didn't even know the debate was on so I missed Donnie's live blogging of it. I read it the day after and it was still a good (and funny) run down of the whackos and Lieberman.

Andrew Olmsted has a great post about something that I had completely forgotten about...the left-wing WAS all over Kay for being a partisan hack when he took the job to find WMD.

Heather at Angelweave has a funny post from a Commenter. On a side note, my old room-mate is a biologist and we had a business plan put together to make healthy beer. We were going to put vitamins and minerals into the beer after fermentation but before bottling. I am sure that Physics Geek may know why that wouldn't work.

Update 8pm CST:

If you haven't seen the grand finale Dean-O, yet, you're in for a good laugh. Drink Alert et. al. Allah is one funny MF.

Hugh Hewitt and Joshua Micah Marshall are going at it over John Kerry. It's pretty interesting stuff.

Speaking of John Kerry - who, by the way, served in Viet Nam - Bill Hobbs has an answer for him.

Damn, I'm glad we have Americans like these...

Cause...and effect.

My best friend has had 3 serious girlfriends, in the last 8 years, switch teams and dump him for a woman. So, when voting in BlogMadness 2003 for Greyhawk (I have linked to his Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy series in several posts - check it out) and Joe Carter, I came across an older post by Joe of the Evangelical Outpost. It's a good one.

Friday Foray

First, here is Andrew Gilligan's (BBC) resignation letter. It's pretty weak for an apology and just shows how horrible and slanted his writing can be...

This is important if you use Peer file sharing networks like KaZaa or Morpheus...apparently, MyDoom originated (in Russia) via KaZaa and can still use peer to peer file sharing to spread.

Please consider signing this on-line petition that calls for the governments of the world to declare the Islamic Clerical Regime of Iran as illegitimate and unfit to govern and therefore call for a free and fair referendum to be held in Iran now by well-respected international organizations. As well as also demands that all top level regime officials be investigated and prosecuted for the crime of genocide and many other crimes against humanity.

Listening to...

The Cult's "Fire Woman"...the Cult - one of my favorites. The only bands that I have seen more concerts of than the Cult are U2, Aerosmith, and the Smithereens.

Hey, it's Friday morning and I had a long night last night so I am on about my fifth cup of coffee. So it's a hard rock mornin'.

I'll have to play "Peace Dog" next and break out the air guitar...yeah, I'm THAT cool.

Those Pepperidge Farm Bastards!

This one's for Heather:

I recently bought a loaf of Pepperidge Farm Low-Carb Wheat Bread. My adorable wife, who is pregnant, is VERY particular about what bread she eats...primarily, it must be soft and not full of grains because she will probably have to throw it up. (Just thought I'd share)

So, not really caring if my bread is Low-Carb, I buy the PF Low-Carb stuff because it seems soft and just the very thing that my lovely wife would desire.

This morning, my wife and I are in the kitchen and she tells me, "Matty, you know why PF is calling this Low-Carb bread?"

"No, darling, why is that?"

"Look at the loaf." I look at it and she proclaims, "Every other piece is sliced twice as thin. THAT'S HOW THEY LOWERED CARBS!"

"Ah, I would never even have noticed that..."

My wife smirks, "Bet you would if your Michelob Ultra was a ten ounce bottle!"

I gasp, "Those Pepperidge Farm BASTARDS!"

Little Blackfive yells from the Living Room, "Bass-tards!"

Someone You Should Know - Mike Low

Mike Low had this to say yesterday:

"I think the country as a whole is tired of hearing about 9-11 but they are missing something very important, that these people are out there in great numbers and they intend to hurt a lot of Americans," he said.

Mr. Low's daughter, Sara, was a flight attendent on American Airlines flight 11 that was flown into the World Trade Center.

We are at war, but some people just don't get it.

Listening To...

Marshall Tucker Band's "Long Hard Ride"

Heeyah!

(And that's no Howard Dean scream either, it's a MANLY Yipee-kay-yay MF!)

(Okay, now I'm gonna have to watch the best movie of all time - Die Hard. "Come to L.A., we'll have a few laughs...")

Wednesday Warp

First off, here's two links to the same blog - The Ministry of Minor Perfidy. Here is a hilarious post about Gay Porn and Professional Baseball. And, sort of on topic, here is a post about lap dancing in Korea (for the 2nd Infantry Division).

Johnny W. sent me this article by Dave Barry from 2002 - has anything changed?

Brian J. (no relation to Frank) has a post about turning blogging into publishing deals - which is funny because I read about Mimi Smartypants getting a deal with Harper Collins. That's cool. But Wil Wheaton? - Chip Diller?

Venomous Kate has a post about slavery reparations...we have a politician here in Chicago that continually bitches that 40 acres and a mule should be 40 million and a Lexus...

Wow!

Update: 4PM CST

Mr. Green called me to tell me about this. Anna at Primal Purge has one great post about Atkins. Here's a "taste":

"Like most, I'm enjoying the rich, culinary diversity Atkins has to offer; fried bacon for breakfast, for lunch I have a bacon sandwich consisting of ten pieces of bacon wrapped around five pieces of bacon, a bacon shake slurped through a hand-rolled bacon Crazy Straw for a mid-afternoon snack, and slow-cooked Crock Pot bacon simmered in bacon glaze for dinner followed by a bale of bacon-scented Metamucil to facilitate the marble-sized turd that's manufactured once every seven days."

Staying on food topic talking point, Starbuck's in Paris? via the Opinion Journal.

Tony - the Oriental Redneck - has a post that's difficult to read, let alone listen, to...and he's right. I really believe that Democratic strategy is to erase the memory of 9/11.

This is why Jennifer Martinez rocks!!!

Serenity has contracted Bad Money's currency fixation...

Blogosphere's First Chili Cook-Off

Leave it to a First Sergeant to figure this kind of stuff out, but there is a Chili Cook-Off for the blogosphere hosted by Sergeant Hook. The least you can do is try the various recipes, let alone enter the contest...

Go here to see recipes and rules for entry. Suffice it to say that you have to try some great recipes while competing for a the title. Fun for all...

Great idea, First Sergeant!

It IS about the Oil...

I wrote about this subject recently.

Russia wants six billion in oil contracts. We want information about weapons sales to Saddam (and not just about the a$$holes that sold the night vision devices and anti-tank missles the week before we invaded either). We could also use some help with intel on Syria. WMD, Al Qaeda, Iraqis hiding there. Ready to share, Ivan?

Then, there's Pepe LePew...

Random Musings from Dublin's Pub

1. If, by some stretch of the imagination, the Palestinians create their own state, how is that going to help the U.S. and the War on Terror? Seriously, I was stumped by this question. Are they going to be better off for it? Are we?

2. Bush's Vice Presidential running mates: Lots of names thrown around. McCain, Zell, Lieberman (?), but the consensus was that Condi should replace Cheney as Vice President. Thoughts?

3. Everything started to become blurry after that...

Housekeeping - Irish Style

Why the moniker change from Blackfive to Paddy O'Tater-Tot?

Comes from Bad Money's derogatory term for an Irishman, and, me being America's Most Beloved Irishman, I decided to use it. Plus, all of you Irish people that are sick of being stereotyped...well...I have news for you, it's because of me. Ha, Ha, Haaaaaa! *hic*

And as for the people asking for how is the Casting Call - Blogger Animal House going, here's a sneak peek:

For some reason D-Day is the most sought after character. It's a dead heat right now between Laughing Wolf, Citizen Smash, and Cold Fury Mike.

The strangest thing is that Instapundit is now in the lead for both Professor Dave Jennings (no surprise there) and Greg Marmalard...he also got a vote for Mandy Pepperidge (?)...

This is with about 45 responses (and most of those were only for 3-4 characters).

Now, I've got to go drink more *hic* Harp, eat some taters, swing the shillelagh, and sing "Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy..."

*hiccup*

Heh. Swing the Shillelagh. Heh, heh...a new euphemism...

*hiccup*

One Reason To Be In Paris This Weekend

It's Fashion Week in Paris. Through Thursday it's all women's fashion, Friday is men's fashion, then the weekend is devoted to...LINGERIE!!!

I equate this to St. Patrick's Day in Chicago...if it lasted all week...and had half-naked women prancing around in interesting lingerie.

Friday Foray

Darren changed the locks but that isn't going to stop us from partying at his place...everyone's invited to stop by...Jennifer Martinez is there now, and, Harv, hurry up with the food already!

Speaking of Harvey, his version of what happened at Madfish Willie's is pretty damned funny...and I don't think I've heard more Irish epithets since the last Blackfive family reunion (anyone notice the new blog moniker?).

Laughing Wolf has a very interesting post - In Consideration of Marriage. The follow up is here.

Consider this a Google Bomb request - Poodle, Poodle, Poodle - I know it's insulting to actual Poodles but we've got to start somewhere.

Jeff at Backcountry Conservative has an interesting post about the Army's weight control program gone awry...I think that it would be tough for a soldier to work out in a dangerous area.

The Daily Ablution is fighting for the dignity and respect of Rats...and we ain't talking about Wesley Clark.

More later....

Mamamontezz has an installment in As The Blog Turns...

Wednesday Warp

First, take a look at Sgt. Hook's post about the Lamb family. Words can't describe our debt to a family like that.

Speaking of Sgt. Hook, don't forget to check out the First Sergeant's Operation Freedom Q - he's trying to provide a BBQ for his soldiers every week while in Afghanistan. I made a donation but you can also buy his gear and wear things like this...

You can also help Smash and the Armed Liberal today...they are helping the Marines bring supplies to needy Iraqis.

Lot's of stuff out there going on about the Yelp from Howard Dean, but nothing as cool as Lileks' remix of the Yelp...nothing. (Mr. Green - who claims to have quit blogging for awhile sent it to me).

Darren Kaplan has a post about the Washington Posts ability to rearrange quotes...

QandO has moved (thank god). Check out the new site.

Update: Pardon My English has an interesting post about political endorsements by sports figures...specifically, Tom Brady.

Rachel Lucas makes it official...she's done.

Email Detective Quiz

This via the email circuit:

Read this question, come up with an answer and then scroll down to the bottom of the extended post for the result. This is not a trick question. It is as it reads. No one I know has gotten it right -

A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met this guy whom she did not know. She thought this guy was amazing, so much her dream guy she believed him to be, that she fell in love with him right there but never asked for his number and could not find him. A few days later she killed her sister.

Question: What is her motive in killing her sister?
(Give this some thought before you answer)

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Answer:

She was hoping that the guy would appear at the funeral again. If you answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath. This was a test by a famous American Psychologist used to test if one has the same mentality as a killer. Many arrested serial killers took part in the test and answered the question correctly. If you didn't answer the question correctly good for you. If you got the answer correct, please let me know so I can take you off of my blogroll or email list unless that will tick you off, then I'll just be extra nice to you from now on.

(Ed. I have no idea if this is valid or not - "a famous American psychologist", but why take chances? Use it on your next date and see if he/she is a psychopath. Fun!)

Some links today

Kate at Electric Venom has the latest Hunting of the Snark posted. Go check out the snarkiest posts on the blogosphere.

I have been cooresponding with Patti of Iraq War News. She created this page about my friend that was killed on Memorial Day in Iraq - Major Mathew Schram. It's now listed under the Fallen Heroes section of Iraq War News.

Thank you so much, Patti!

Guess who has no plans to send troops to Iraq?

I almost can't believe that AP turned this into a story.

You get one guess which country Has No Plans to Send Troops to Iraq.

...

France.

Why this story is newsworthy? I don't know...Here's the AP Story: France Has No Plans to Send Troops to Iraq

France is interested in helping to train an Iraqi police force, but sending in a military contingent is not on the agenda now, the foreign minister said Friday.

France wants to contribute to Iraq's security by helping to train the nation's next generation of police officers — once power is transferred to a sovereign Iraqi government, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said.

"There are a number of domains of possible cooperation," de Villepin said in his annual address to the news media. "France wants to give its contribution in the face of this Iraqi crisis."

France has offered to share expertise with Iraqi police after the U.S.-led coalition hands power to an Iraqi transitional government on July 1. But he said the question of sending in French troops is "not a current topic."

I have posted about the stellar police work happening in France in relation to the War on Terror. So, I don't think having their help in training a police force is going to be that much help.

However, maybe we have them train their army and defense forces? That way, if we ever have to fight them again, they'll fold even quicker than they did the last two times...

But, then again, France has it's hands full - French Scarf Ban Faces Worldwide Protest.

Thursday Trip

Blog updates here all day:

France is acting up again - this time the Bejus Pundit is on the case.

Linda at Civilization Calls has a must read post about IRS Revenue Ruling 2004-6 and what it will do to stifle free speech.

John Donovan weighs in on the ruling as well...

Frank J. uses more scientific analysis to analyze liberals - the notes section is worth the read alone (Lemming Death Cult, anyone?). Frank J. also answers some reader questions - Shirts, Terrorist Video Games, More Liberals in the Family, and Bourbon for Our Troops.

Speaking of comedy, Instapundit links to an NYT arinterview with one of my favorite comdians - Dennis Miller. I used to love his HBO show and didn't care he was a liberal. The funniest episode was his 100th where he had both Norm McDonald and David Spade.

Speaking of chicks with words written across their rears (okay, I wasn't talking about that subject but secretly wanted to) - Heather has a hilarious post about her latest encounter with a classy girl at the gym.

Juliette at Baldilocks has some interesting discourse on the Paul O'Neill issue. The comments are worth the read as well.

doc Russia has an interesting post about the Democrats but then ends up with a cool proposition - I'm with him on it.

More good stuff from Darren Kaplan - this on Clark's assessment that Dutch Prison would be appropriate for bin Laden. WTF?

If you haven't seen Gut Rumbles in awhile because Rob is in Jamaica, you ought to check it out. The cat picture had me in tears...

I subscribe to the hard-copy Economist so I don't read it online. Milt's File links to this great article on what makes a suicide bomber.

Greyhawk has Part II in his Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy piece.

John Hawkins has a run down of some great quotes by and about Wesley Clark - my third least favorite Democrat Candidate. He's tied with Sharpton. I have yet to find one officer or sergeant that served with Wesley Clark (not as his Chief of Staff) and approves of him for president.

Other stuff off blog topics-

1. Carol Mosely Braun *yawn* has conceded and throws her 17 supporters behind Howard Dean.

2. May I remind you that in a few short months, the Cubs will begin their World Series Winning Season. You heard it here first. For Cubs Fans - A Dying Cub's Fan's Last Request. Man, talking about the Cubs makes me thirsty.

3. A guy at work sent me to this electrical site (click on picture to see video or go to this link).

Interesting Things From Just One Picture

All right, here's some just plain weird interesting things that have happened as a result of the New Army Uniform Policy post:

1. The post was linked by an awful lot of diverse web sites...but the capper was being linked by Jehovah's Witness Online...I...just....don't know what to say.

2. I received a lot of emails from folks accusing me of doctoring the photo or posting a fake photo. Really? It doesn't appear genuine? You know, when I was a Commander, I ordered my Company to wear patches that said "Clinton Sucks!". We were quite popular...

Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday Warp

Citizen Smash has a great post about a Reservist and his optimism. It's people like James and the Staff Sergeant that I had lunch with yesterday that made me enjoy my time in the service. Don't ever forget that there are so many truly incredible people serving this country.

Darren Kaplan has The U.S. Relationship With Saddam--Fantasy vs. Reality Part II posted.

Rosemary at Dean's World posts about unilateralism...the conclusion of the post is both ironic, forthright, and damn funny.

Bill Whittle has started his guide to Building the Ideal American...

Joe Carter at the Evangelical Outpost has an interesting post about the color of morality. Joe also hosted the Bonfire of the Vanities this week...

Speaking of colors, check out the Vodka Pundit's electoral wargaming post.

Phil Carter at IntelDump discusses an interesting possibility due to the overlapping troop rotations in Iraq.

You want to read an interesting and well-written piece about the world seen through an American GI's eyes? Go here...

Tuesday Links

Iraq News has a great round up of what's happening in Iraq PLUS things that you can do to support our troops. The same folks also have a foundation - Soldier's Angels - where you can Adopt a Soldier

The Laughing Wolf has two posts that relate to Intelligence and Journalism and Intelligence.

Did we create Saddam? Go visit Darren Kaplan and read what he has to say about the subject. You won't be wasting your time.

I'd always figured Donnie for a Georgia boy but it ain't so...

Light Posting this AM - more later

Two reasons for the light posting today:

1. I am a NEW UNCLE. My youngest brother's wife gave birth to Margaret Sinclair. Welcome to the World, Margaret!!! Can't wait to see you today!

2. I have a lunch meeting with a Staff Sergeant who used to work for me in the Reserves. He's passing through on his way down range. He got pulled out of Law School at the U of I (in his second year) and will be interrogating prisoners overseas. He's one of the best and brightest NCOs I have ever worked with in over 17 years in the Army.

Imagine if you had an MBA from Notre Dame, and in your second year of Law School, you get called up to go overseas and make maybe 32K per year PLUS you might get shot at...?! Buying him lunch and a few beers is the least I can do! (BTW, he's not bitching about it at all. In fact, enthusiastic might be an understatement).

Have a great day, everyone.

Monday

Here are a few posts that delve into perceptions about Muslims:

Banagor has an essay about Choosing Sides...specificially, about whether there is a difference in Islam, Radical Islam, the Islamofascists or the Islamic World...

Conversely, Donald Sensing has a post about tolerant Muslims.

Darren Kaplan also read Donald Sensing's post and has more to say about Turkey's ability to deal with Islam.

You have to decide for yourself what to believe.

On a lighter note, Mike at Cold Fury has a hilarious post about why I started hacking some Burger King hacks...

The Laughing Wolf follows the scent on what makes a Soldier...it's not what you think.

Trey Givens has a post about a guy who has lived on a golf course for 40 years...and not in a home. In downtown Chicago, we name our bums so your co-workers know who you ran into today - we have Crazy Mary (who flashes people), the Mad Hatter (who wears about fifty nit hats on his head and they all stretch out until he looks like a character from the hobbit), etc....

Jack of the most excellent blog, Random Fate, also has a blog entitled the Unrepentant Curmdugeon. Here's a great post about a hot topic - Immigration. Thanks to Donnie for the reminder about Jack's personality disorder...

Bill Whittle's new post

Bill Whittle has a new post at Eject!Eject!Eject!...before checking it out you may want to read this first.

Some teachers are up to no good and...

Some guys get all the luck....

This is crap...

I saw this letter on Healing Iraq via Andrew Olmstead's site (via Instapundit): It's a letter about Americans committing atrocities in Iraq. Specifically, it's about the drowning of a woman's son (after he was handcuffed).

If this happened over the weekend, wouldn't the liberal media (that would just absolutely go crazy over this) have written about it? While this might have actually have happened, I really doubt it and I hope it didn't happen.

It sounds EXACTLY like what happened to the son of a Kurdish chief when his son crossed a bridge over a river near the no-fly zone border in the north. The Iraqi guards made the Kurdish kid do the exact same thing and he drowned. I will look for the story. Happened awhile ago.

I have to call bullsh*t on this one. We'll see what happens with the "investigation".

Update: This is all I could find right now. I will look at the Kurdish Press to see if that's where I had heard of this sort of thing before.

Another update: Instapundit has a good run down from former military guys about some B.S. aspects of the letter. So, if this happened FIVE days ago, where is Al Jazeera on this? The BBC would be all over this like Michael Moore on a donut.

Everyone is so fast to give Zeyad some credit here and say that he has been trustworthy before. I have never read his blog before, and I don't know him.

I'll apologize to Zeyad if this turns out to be true. Just one thing to say to everyone calling this a tragedy...

How about giving the American serviceman some credit?

Another another update: Greyhawk has some great posts: Season of Lies I, II, and, the capper, III.

More Healing Crap from Iraq is here.

Update 07-03-04: Apology was made on April 5th.

Blackfive eating habits of late...

So my wife's pregnant and has a condition called "hyperemesis something-in-latin". Bascially, she can't eat and gets nutrients via IVs every few days. This also happened when she was pregnant with little Blackfive. So, I am staying home this week, taking care of playing with little Blackfive and watching over my wife. My eating habits have gone to hell. Here's what I had for dinner last night: Chips and Salsa, Beer, chocolate ice cream, more beer later. All after 9pm. Mostly, this was due to figuring out what to eat while blogging (Spaghetti or Kung Pao Chicken not being good choices).

Yesterday, when talking to Mr. Green, he quipped that it was "big" of me to be trying to gain as much weight as Mrs. Blackfive.

Any other fathers out there put on weight when their wife was pregnant? I know I did when she was pregnant with our first.

Well, here's my next Bonfire submission. Although, it sucks so much that it might smother the pyre.

Wednesday Warp

Yesterday, Frank J. scientifically proves that George Bush is not Hitler. However, he found plausible evidence that someone else could be Hitler...

Today, he has another installment of In My World in which you-know-who makes another video tape...no, not Paris Hilton, Harv.

Boots and Sabers is hosting the Bonfire of the Vanities this week...check out the hilariously worst of the 'sphere.

American Realpolitik has this week's Carnival of the Vanities.

Juliette at Baldilocks has a very interesting post on why she is a Republican.

The Bejus Pundit got banged up a bit over the holidays...and, not in a good way. Go visit Bejus to find out what happened, plus he has some great posts on the Democratic Underground and Clark.

Now, for some coffee, back in a bit...okay, I'm back. They just built a Dunkin' Donuts across the street from my condo. I normally like to go to Seattle's Best or Starbuck's, but, since it is damn cold here in Chicago today, Dunkin Donuts it is!

I received a comment in my post about the military's way of dispersing medals. The commenter was THERE at the incident I had heard about. Cool.

Annika has a great post about Dean and the bible.

Hugh Hewitt's got an interesting take on a flag football game between the services.

Darren Kaplan has a very interesting post on decoding al Qaeda...

Man, Geoff's place has turned into a troll-infested smack-down...one post has 877 comments (probably about 800 troll spams though). Spam Coming Right Outa Trolls Ugly Mouth....maybe, I'll trademark it.

This one from Phil Carter at IntelDump is about training Marines to be nice. WTF? I wasn't a Marine but come from a long line of them. This is absolutely crazy...what happened to Every Marine a Rifleman?

Jockularocracy has a great post on Poker on TV. I actually wrote a post about how my wife thought that poker was boring until she started watching Celebrity Poker and World Series of Poker. Granted, Texas Hold 'Em is for wimps (especially, with ONE deck). Now, she is hooked. I trashed the post because it sucked, but Jock's is a good run down on the phenom of poker on TV.

I won a medal over at Madfish Willie's Cyber Saloon.

Greyhawk (who always posts great stuff) points to a post from John Galt about the Homecoming of our troops rotating back to the states. He's right. Go read it.

Greyhawk also has a post on David Letterman's visit to our troops in Iraq. Bobby Sr., one of our readers, sent me a picture of his son (in a combat support hospital with pnemonia) with David Letterman. This morning on Fox, I also saw that Colin Quinn visited the troops.

Jon at QandO discusses the term "NeoCon" and it's Jewish connotation. (scroll down as Blogspot links don't work too well)

John Hawkins of Right Wing News discusses some of his beliefs.

Side note: I have to say that I cringe at labels like ultra-conservative or NeoCon or Right-Wing. My wife laughed at me the other day when I claimed that I was middle-of-the-road in my beliefs...She just smiled at me and patiently said, "Matt, you're conservative. You are "Mid-Western", not middle-of-the-road. You just want everyone to use common sense instead of name-calling." Damn smart woman, Mrs. Blackfive. So, I agree with every point on John's list except for the Clinton point. I hate Bill Clinton...for what happened in Moghidishu, if not everything else he did to weaken our counrty's moral, foreign policy, and military strengths. I don't like Hillary, but that's far from the seething disregard I have for her husband. I just think she's a mean-spirited, cold-hearted, power-hungry, lying dupe (I don't think she's racist, either).

Boy, that was a digression!

This post is why I think Paul at Sanity's Edge is one of the funniest bloggers around. He doesn't write parody - he lives it and throws it in people's faces every day!

I will probably move to the Chicago suburbs soon since we will need more room in about 7 months. Wilmette is not on the short list of places to move to...Eric the Straight White Guy explains.

Sarah at Trying to Grok has a post on deciphering the liberal spin of the media.

Kevin at Wizbang! has a post on the French losers that missed an opportunity to catch an al Qaeda suspect...of course, this is after the French claimed the U.S. was over-reacting about the canceled flights. Egg on your face, France, egg on your face...

Monday Menagerie

Robbie at Say Anything has a post about the Democrats answer to Rush Limbaugh...Ed Schultz - whose show is funded (at least in part) by the DNC. Now, I definitely don't think that Rush is the mouthpiece for Republicans. I have never heard his radio show. I have seen him on various interviews, though. I guess this implies that Rush's show was funded by advertising instead of the RNC.

Frank J. is back. Who is Frank J. you ask? Well, go here and read his latest Bite Sized Wisdom.

John Donovan of Argghhh! has a link to and intelligent discussion about the Bush=Hitler video created by MoveOn.org. Citizen Smash has comments too and a link where MoveOn.org is calling for non-partisanship...right!

More interesting blogger posts later this morning...

Update 01-05-04 11AM CST:

Discount Blogger has a link to a soldier's funeral.

Beautiful Girls: Jennifer has Dana's interview posted here.

Mr. Green has been accused of eating glue...by none other than Mrs. Green.

You can support Sgt. Hook's morale fund for his company's deployment to Afghansitan. Profits to support a weekly BBQ to raise the spirits of his company (he's a First Sergeant - meaning the top enlisted man and non-commissioned officer in the company).

Trey Givens describes the irony caused by PETA...made me laugh.

Recent Additions to Blogroll

Milt's File - Radio Show host on WGN posts stories every day. No comments, but lots of high-level and interesting information. He's also a prof at the University of Chicago.

The Laughing Wolf - The wolf has some really great posts - like this one about NASA. He also offered to help protect my family when we were threatened. Helluva wolf.

TacJammer - The site has an interesting mix of quotes, humor, and relevant info. Check it out.

As you can see, none of them are very similar. That's what I like.

Light Posting Here Today

...more later this evening.

The Blackfive New Year's Hangover Cure

Since tomorrow will prove to be a light day on the blogosphere and I won't be posting on the 1st, I thought I would share my sure-fire, 100% guaranteed, several-step program for curing the mother-of-all-hangovers:

1. Water will not help you. Many hangover cures claim that drinking water will cut the pain and agony of a dehydration headache resulting from drinking heavily. Now, I want you people to repeat these words: Water is for washing, booze is for drinking. Say it over and over again until it is ingrained in your memory. If someone offers you water, tell them you are thirsty, not dirty.

2. Vitamins will do nothing for you. Vitamin C, B-Complex, B-12, and B-1,000,000 will not help at all. I emphatically recommend highly fatty foods like bacon, cheeseburgers, Philly cheese-steaks, fries, etc. It helps if you have a good buddy that hosts a brunch on New Year's Day. Get yourself one of those before trying vitamins - as those are only for athletes and health-enthusiasts. Stick to my advice and no hangover for you!

3. There are those blasphemers that believe that Cogeners are the cause. Evidently, cogeners are darker in color and, therefore, are found in darker beverages like scotch, whiskey, and rum. I have found that this "discovery" was fabricated by the Russian mafia in an effort to promote vodka as the drink of choice. This is obviously false as I have personally experienced more excruciating mornings as the result of vodka than scotch. Also, I recently had the pleasure of testing some blogger's excellent Belgian ale and wound up with a nice hangover. My hangover-avoidance advice: Drink scotch. Stay away from the Belgian ale.

4. Sex is a good great hangover cure. This is NOT a lie spread by the Russian mafia (or the Bush Administration).

5. Keep drinking. If you keep drinking, no hangover. This is your best bet for curing/avoiding hangovers. I am going to start at about 7 or 8 PM tomorrow night and won't stop until about February.

Update: For those who take me too seriously, go here for helpful advice and then start drinking...

Tuesday Trip

Stephen Den Beste has a great post about the primary and general election...and he predicts that Eric will vote for Bush.

Next, go and vote at About in their Political Dot-Comedy Awards. Here are my suggestions:

Best Overall Humor & Best Satirical: The Onion

Best Parodies: French Military Victories

Most Entertaining Right-Wing News & Commentary: John Hawkins' Right Wing News (believe it or not, I have never read Newsmax or Drudge)

Ever wonder what the hell happened to the Bartender over at Madfish Willie's Cyber Bar? Harvey's got the scoop

Visit Sgt. Hook today.

The Acidman hit his Second Blogiversary on Sunday.

Dana at Note-It-Posts hit her six month blogiversary and puts up a great post about the Schizophrenia of Howard Dean.

Where are the moderates now?

Here's a story about a youth football league that was caught offguard this year by some of the football team names in the Annual Holiday Tournament. This one is via Fox News:

Furor Over Muslim Football Tournament

IRVINE, Calif. — The idea was innocent enough: A group of young men organize a holiday football tournament and give their teams such innocuous names as "4th and Goal" and "Playmakerz."

It was some of the other team names that raised eyebrows: Intifada, Soldiers of Allah and Mujahideen.

Now, some of you may believe that, because of the 1st Amendment, these young men can name their team whatever the hell they want. The first thing that I thought was "Why the hell are their parents allowing this to happen?" It all starts in the home. It seems that some of the Muslim community agrees.

...Muslim leaders have asked the teams to reconsider the names.

"Sensitizing our youths is our role as adults," said Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Southern California.

But he also said he believed the players were not being malicious when they decided the names.

"In this case, the choices were totally innocent and meant for a small intra-Muslim tournament whose members all knew what the terms stand for," Ayloush said. "Unfortunately, we are aware that a few of those terms are being tainted by the abominable actions of a few Muslims."

I find it hard to believe that terms that the Palestinians have used to label their cowardly war on innocent women and children could be, in the biggest stretch of the imagination, used legimately for a sports team name. The only choices that were totally innocent were the ones made by the victims of Intifada - choices like going to work, throwing your daughter a Bat Mitzvah, or having a cup of tea.

...The league also posted an open letter on the Internet, apologizing "if anyone took offense to what was intended to simply be a positive outlet for Muslim youth."

The letter also defended the use of the word Intifada, citing the Palestinian movement.

WTF? The letter also defended the use of the word Intifada?

Okay, maybe this is just blown way out of proportion because of a few stupid kids. But where is the outrage from the Muslim community - wait, check that - the American Muslim community. A little apologizing and backtracking is all we got here, folks. If I name my football team the Columbine Massacre or the McVeighs or the Lynchers, what do you think would happen? Both liberals and conservatives would be all over me like white on rice. The outcry would be immense and intense.

So where are those people in the Muslim community? Everyone can't possibly be an extremist, right? Is everyone who is not an extremist afraid of the ire of the extremists? Even in Irvine, California? Irvine. California.

Finally, Dick Jauron is history...

Well, I have been vocal about both (1) my hope that the Bears would fire Dick Jauron and (2) that the McCaskey's (owners of the Bears) are so cheap that Chicago will get another second rate coach because he's cheaper.

Well the Bears fired Jauron today. I hope number (2) doesn't come true.

I am one of those that believe that coaches can make a significant difference. Look at the former Bears players that have excelled away from Jauron (or even Wanstadt). Look at what Dusty Baker did with the Cubs.

The talent is there. The will is there. The Bears need a proven leader, not a second rate coach.

Update on the Carrasquillos

Here's an update on the two Carrasquillo brothers fighting in the 82nd Airborne:

1. Their father, Bobby Sr, has updated part of his site with a letter from Bobby Jr., pictures, and a great story about his unit from the Washington Post.

2. Bobby Sr. also put together two slide shows that you can download.

3. Last, son Alex contracted pnemonia, was sent to the Combat Hospital (like M.A.S.H) and was visited by the Secretary of the Army...and David Letterman visited him on Christmas Eve.

4. Bobby Jr. surprised Dad on Christmas Eve (came home 6 days early).