"I'm using the back of my hand . . . ."

This constant harangue about airport security pat-downs has long become tiresome for me. FOX news seems to be leading the charge, but all the other news sources are fast on their heels in the outcry. This whole dust-up is frustrating for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’m just tired of listening to it.

Here is my biggest issue with this issue: hypocrisy. As usual, people (usually liberal-minded people, mind you) piss and moan about one thing or another and when they finally get their way, in spades, they piss and moan that they got what they wanted but not how they wanted it. In this case, Americans, who have long valued their privacy and the fundamentals of the free market, all of a sudden are clamoring for their privacy to be invaded and are ignoring a basic principle of the free market because they are being inconvenienced at the airport . . . for security purposes. Was 9/11 really that long ago? What’s more, are these same people watching the same news outlets that pump them up about getting mauled by a giant black man wearing a TSA badge when they report the many, many foiled terrorist attack attempts?

Bill O’Reilly’s fall into Irrelevance

I remember sitting in the break room of my Company’s barracks building with a dozen other guys watching a television program. The cheap couches and chairs were packed and those who couldn’t find a seat were happy to stand and watch the show. No one played ping-pong; no one cared to knock the balls around on the pool table. Everyone was riveted to the television screen.

Normally, with dirt-chewing, gun-toting infantrymen of the coarsest variety, the only sort of on-screen feature that could command such attention was a film of the x-rated sort . . . and even that would have had to be remarkable in some way. This occasion, though, the soldiers weren’t watching the latest war movie or film starring adult entertainers. We were watching The O’Reilly Factor.

Arlington-Smarlington . . . I Need a Vacation

Speaking for myself and from a position of relative ignorance – as most of us must with the way the MSM refuses to execute their due diligence as the Fourth Estate regarding Obama’s presidency – I am, at the same time, not surprised by and wholly disgusted with the president’s decision to opt out of the Memorial Day Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier so he can take yet another vacation. It will be his second vacation this month.

I remember when Vice President Cheney laid the wreath at the Tomb instead of President Bush. And maybe I’m not being fair to Obama, because I didn’t feel the same indignation then as now. He hasn’t cancelled the ceremony outright, after all, and he is sending Biden as his supernumerary. Then again, taking into account the characters of each Bush and Obama, maybe I’m not.

How Much is Enough?

“We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I do think at a certain point you've made enough money, but you know, part of the American way is, you can just keep on making it if you're providing a good product.”

This was, of course, the President of the United States of America Barack Obama off the teleprompter script.

Discriminate? Don’t You Dare

Think about the law recently passed in Arizona. No, not the fact that the law simply gives law enforcement officers in the state the authority to enforce federal immigration law. No, not how the left (to include the president, his buddy down Mexico way, his Attorney General, his Secretary of Homeland Security, and her underlings) has not bothered to read the bill but gone on to piss and moan how the law is an atrocity. Instead, think about how they are pissing and moaning.

Even though the law clearly states that officers may not use factors of race, ethnicity, etc. to investigate a person’s legal status, the left has blatantly ignored this fact. But, how, exactly, are they getting their rhetoric through despite it? Simple: they are using the “D” word, discrimination.

Awarding Minimum Standards

American military personnel engaging the enemy must follow certain Rules of Engagement (ROE) as commanded by their leadership. Though the ROE necessarily evolves to accommodate current battlefield conditions, soldiers and Marines understand that one of the constants of each issued ROE is that targeting civilians is a no-no. Should a soldier or Marine engage and wound or kill a civilian when such could well have been avoided, they understand that they will face criminal charges. If convicted, they are given a suite at Ft. Leavenworth's Military Prison.

Now, apparently, all of those who do not - which is to say all of those who now stand ready on the front lines because they haven't already been removed for such actions - would be eligible for President Obama's idea for a new commendation, the Courageous Restraint Medal.

Compassionate People

America: the land of compassion. Doubtless, few will disagree, but mostly because each Left and Right stakes a claim to having it while the other doesn’t. I am one of those.

Though it is quite the mystery for lefties to understand exactly how we conservatives can claim be compassionate, the facts and logic state – or should – indisputably that such is true. The Right, year in and out, donates such a larger portion of their incomes to charitable organizations as compared to folks on the Left by so large a margin that this fact alone should be enough to end all debate. But the facts only begin there. The ideological differences between Left and Right are what really create the delineation regarding the degree of compassion.

Movie Review: Julie & Julia

When it comes to lining up the next movie in the cue from Netflix, I occasionally take into consideration my wife's ever discriminating tastes. Recently, I remembered her utterance of "Oh, I'd like to see that" during a preview for Julie & Julia. So, dutiful as I am, I moved it to the top spot. It was delivered promptly and we plumped ourselves on the couch and watched the whole thing just last night.

The More I Learn . . .

. . . About Islam, the more I see its evils.

My first real experiences with Muslims came in Iraq. I’d met and interacted with Muslims in Tunisia and Kuwait prior to my time in Iraq; but, those experiences merely brushed the surface, whereas, in Iraq, I was out and amongst followers of Islam on a daily basis. Iraqis, like people everywhere, have among their multitudes those who are ardent in following the strictures of their faith, those who pay convenient obeisance, and those who disregard their religion wholly. Though Islam forbids homosexuality, I met many young men who told me that women are for procreation while men are for pleasure. I met a great many men who drank alcohol regularly, which Islam also forbids. Then again, there are the male shepherds who are famous for relieving themselves on the ewes in the flock. I’ve never learned whether bestiality is also forbidden but I can only imagine that it is. On the other side of the coin, I also had a run-in with a Wahabi – even his relatively moderate fellow trainees in the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps were afraid of what he may have done. They were so afraid and in such an uproar, in fact, that we trainers thought that we might have been under some sort of attack.

Racism and Politics Don’t Belong in Sports

Being a die-hard Braves fan, it is exciting for me to look forward to the up-coming season. The pitching staff is as solid as ever – Huddy is back and Lowe looks to have found his old form. The infield is stout all the way around, Brian McCann is behind the plate, and the outfield will finally have some pop in their bats and speed on the bases.

One reason the outfield looks to be so improved is the possible addition of MLB’s #1 prospect, Jason Heyward. He is twenty years old and has the demeanor and maturity of a seasoned veteran. Balls explode off of his bat such that the sound made when he connects has been compared to that of The Hammer (Hank Aaron, for those who somehow don’t know). He can steal bases and has a cannon for an arm. With any luck, the home-grown Brave will stay in an Atlanta uniform for years and years.

Oh, Diversity!

The ever-increasing desire for diversity in the workplace and in general social life, that ultimate “progressive” idea, is really nothing less than racism in most cases and the sheer celebration of ‘victimized’ people in the rest.

Side note: I am of the firm belief that "progressivism" really ought to be renamed "regressivism."

I recently listened to (out of one ear) a Boston radio program, which I’ve known to be loosely billed as having two hosts, one conservative and the other a liberal. The conservative host was rambling, not sarcastically I think, about such and such being great for its wonderful diversity and whatnot. Okay, clearly, one of three things is going on in this vignette: I either heard the conservative host incorrectly, mistook her sarcasm, or she isn’t really that conservative.