BlackFive

Mike Yon, awesome as usual, on Memorial Day and happenings in Anbar.

JD Johannes of Outside the Wire concurs with Mike in this great post about debunking some myths but warns that things change quickly in Iraq.

Mike was a guest on Pundit Review Radio to discuss the Awakening in Anbar (the awakening of our forces, not the tribes).

Bruce McQuain of QandO really knocked the cover off of the ball with this Someone You Should Know Radio segment on Pundit Review Radio.  there are two segments with Bruce - the first is about Memorial Day and the second is about how Marine Sergeant Mitchell fought along side Brad Kasal (who y'all better know!) in Fallujah.  Bruce tells the story from a different perspective.  It's well worth your time to listen.

More Moonbattery at the Coast Guard Academy and the Gathering of Eagles team was there.

"May No Soldier Go Unloved" is a book about Soldiers Angels that goes is available for pre-sales now.  Of course, some of the proceeds will go towards supports our returning heroes.  Order your copy now!

I'm a little late with this, but the most excellent David Axe at Aviation Week has an article about the new and improved A-10 Thunderbolt (better and more affectionately known as the Warthog).  And for you Warthog junkies, David's Flickr page has some really cool A-10 photos.

Bill Roggio's Fourth Rail is an amazing resource to find out what is happening in the war on terror.  Be sure to check out Bill's daily Iraq report.

Haven't done a Listening To post in awhile.

I have a new receiver - Yamaha HTR-5940 - so I can exploit my surround sound speakers when using my ipod, hd tv, dvd or, most importantly, XBox 360.  Gears of War on volume 11.  Nice!

So, this morning, Little Blackfive, Pinkfive and I are grooving to the Teddy Bears' song "Punkrocker" which features Iggy Pop.  I think Pinkfive was doing the "Batusi".

You can listen to "Punkrocker" here.  Swedish big-beat sound, guitar led, with a groove.

Listening to The Killers' "When You Were Young..." right now.

Quite a few people sent me this article quoting The Killers' frontman Brandon Flowers:

...Brandon Flowers has criticised Green Day for what he sees as their calculated anti-Americanism.

In particular, Flowers singled out the track 'American Idiot' and the fact they filmed their DVD 'Bullet In A Bible', which features the song, in the UK.

"You have Green Day and 'American Idiot'. Where do they film their DVD? In England," The Killers' frontman told The Word. "A bunch of kids screaming 'I don't want to be an American idiot' I saw it as a very negative thing towards Americans. It really lit a fire in me."

Explaining he was offended by the set-up, Flowers added: "You have the right to say what you want to say and what you want to write about, and I'm sure they meant it in the same way that Bruce Springsteen meant 'Born In The USA' and it was taken wrongly, but I was really offended when I saw them do that."
<...>
"I just thought it was really cheap," he explained. "To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren't taking it the same way that he meant it. And he [Billie Joe Armstrong] knew it."

Mr. Hooker has posted a video version of his song "Hanging Out with the Boys" - go check it out.  Anyone who's spent time hanging out with the boys on the line will be nodding their heads in agreement...

H/t Straight White Guy.

Subsunk here. While charting my course through the daily good news today, I did come upon a wonderful article by a comrade in arms on my favorite subject --- the bankruptcy of the mainstream media culture and its representatives. So I thought I would share it all with you. Go and read, the good Captain Lex.

Have a nice day, folks. Press on to Victory.

Subsunk, Out.

Mostly, but not all, punk records on 100 Records.  I'm a big fan of the Cult.  So here's the links to the Cult posts:

The Cult - Dreamtime (Spiritwalker always one of my favorites...)

The Cult - Love (Revolution, Love, Big Neon Glitter...)

And I'll throw in one of my own personal favorites, somewhat appropriate for this blog. 

The Cult - Peace Dog

Oh, peace is a dirty word
She used to be a painted bird, yeah
And war, she's a whore
Don't you know we love her more and more?
Peace is a dirty word
She used to be a painted bird, yeah
War, she's a whore
Don't you know we love her more and more?
B52 baby, way up in the sky
Come droppin' your lovin' on me, child
B52 baby, way up in the sky
Drop your love on me tonight, yeah...

Subsunk here. A couple of folks have brought this to my attention. Some things in our country seem confused right now. How politics plays out in our national defense has always irritated me a bit, but I recognized there was not much I could do about it. Besides, my Pentagon job had lots of discussions about "posse comitatus" reviews and I had become educated a small bit by this to realize our military plays almost no role in defense of our country inside the 50 state boundaries.

Sure, we train here, we live here, but we are not allowed to detain, arrest, spy on, or otherwise impinge upon the rights of people inside the US unless first asked to provide technical expertise in support of a law enforcement agency (obviously we can on federal property). That includes the local sheriff. He can ask for help of the local garrison if he needs it. He won't get it unless the post commander has the time and resources to render, but he can ask.

A lot of what has happened the last 4 or 5 years has been frustrating to me. I was commissioned a month before Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. I lived with radical Islam poking my country in the ankle with a stick my entire adult life. I have seen how there are many (not a few, despite what W, Abu Sinan, liberals and the press say) Muslims who wish us harm. Period, no ifs, ands, or buts. I see our press treat them as special cases, deserving special treatment as if they have been oppressed by America in the way Blacks were oppressed before the Civil War (or as my great aunt used to say, the War of Northern Aggression). I see the press using their unchecked powers to propagandize against anyone who supports war, whether it is for a noble cause, self defense, or even in the name of prevention of genocide. They have turned logic on its head.

Their actions, whether they mean them to or not, damage the credibility of the United States, drain the will of the American people to fight for their own survival, and hinder, obfuscate, and occlude the clear vision required to see the Enemy for who and what he is.

And a post which demonstrates to me the horrifying possibilities of this failure of all to see that which I see trumpeted daily from the press, the facts "twisted by Knaves to make a trap for Fools", the words of the imams ignored as the speech of those who need to pacify their masses with the blood of Americans, is found here.

100 Records...an MP3 blog with entries on the Cult, Cramps, English Beat, Social D and many others.

[Thanks to ArmyWifeToddlerMom for the link.]

Last night, Mrs. Blackfive and I went to the Sugarland concert on the Lake Michigan shore.  Mrs. Blackfive, a big country music fan, talked me into it.

Sugarland was absolutely great live.

But, right now, I've been listening to a band called Silvertide - sort of a mix of Lynerd Skynerd Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Thorogood and the Destroyers and the Black Crows, with a little Collective Soul thrown in...

So, I'm listening to Silvertide's "I Ain't Comin' Home" (media player stream sample).

Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Red, White, and Blue"...

Here's Amazon's preview clip (Windows Media Player).

Late one night in St. Louis, I was feeding my four month old daughter and watching Country Music Television...something I don't have in Chicago...and Montgomery Gentry and Lynyrd Skynyrd were on CMT's Crossroads where the bands combine to play each other's songs.  They wrapped up with "Red, White, and Blue" (lyrics).  I rocked my baby girl to sleep to it.

They absolutely rocked...Hopefully, they'll have Crossroads available on DVD sometime soon.

Switching to Black Crowe's "Wiser Time" (Window Media Player)...