Corporal Jonathan K. Clarke USMC: Someone You Should Know

Michael Fay gives the story of a man who has made his job - checking ID's at the lunch hall to prevent a suicide bomber from getting in - a real morale booster for everyone he checks. Some people improve the lives of everyone they meet. God Bless Corporal Clarke.

Hat Tip to Blackfive, for the "Someone You Should Know" meme. Don't miss Lance Corporal Pascal Cisse, USMC, either.

Private Roderick Evans: Someone You Should Know

This man lost 230 pounds to enlist in the Army!

Miserable Donuts: An Army Broken?

Major John Tammes says that Representative Murtha is exaggerating the intelligence:

As anyone who has read this blog knows, The Inner Prop and I served in Operation Enduring Freedom V (Afghanistan, March 2004-March 2005). We stood at the end of the longest sustained supply line in the history of human conflict. We were in war-torn Central Asia. Af-frickin'-ghanistan. We had decent food, e-mail, phone (OK, sometimes they weren't always working, but almost all the time) excellent medical support, good pay, regular (if slow) mail. We had a PXs at most of the larger bases, and coffee places sprang up too. We had so damned much ammunition that we needed to build a bigger ammunition supply point at Bagram, AF. We had so many vehicles that we were constantly squabbling over where to put them all - and we had enough up-armored ones too. Our supply warehouses were stuffed with clothing, boots, body armor and the like. "Living hand to mouth" is the worst lie of the bunch.

Murtha has a reasonable worry - that the Army will suffer in Iraq as it suffered in Vietnam. But worries aren't realities.

Another Soldier's Plea

He says, basically, that we should listen to an honest man, George Bush. Best lines:

It’s sad that so many Iraqis and others are dying over here. However, when you discover you have cancer the treatment is always the same - attack it at the source. You don’t wait for it to spread. And when is the last time you heard a doctor putting a limited timetable on cancer therapy? I can picture it in my mind. “Mr. Smith, we have seen some progress with your tumor. It’s shrinking. But we need to move on now. The timetable for treating you has passed. Good luck.”

Via Instapundit. (Who else?)

Thanks, Joe!

I forgot to be thankful for Joe Lieberman last Thursday. But I am thankful. Mr. Lieberman gives me hope for my old party.

Via Instapundit (along with half of everything I post, I expect).

So I'm Not Alone

The Washington Post notes these poll results, which show most people apparently have the same opinion of Democratic Congressional leaders that I do. First quote:

Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt "a lot," according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.

Second quote:

Their poll also indicates many Americans are skeptical of Democratic complaints about the war. Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to "gain a partisan political advantage."

Of course they are polls, so they are only slightly more accurate than the weatherman and slightly less accurate than military intelligence, and public opinion changes almost as fast as the weather....

A Clinton Appointee Remembered

Gee, maybe the Democrats have forgotten Clinton Appointee Kenneth M. Pollack. Well, the Brother's Judd haven't. And the case Pollack made for deposing Saddam was good then, and it's still good.

Gun Vault, Safe to Armed in Seconds! - Products

Got a Mini GunVault for myself for Christmas. It's on sale for eighty bucks at Cabelas until 4 December. Now I just have to figure out where and how to mount it. Well, and I need to wrap it, of course.

Arabia Steamboat Museum

The most amazing attraction in Kansas City is a celebration of the pioneering values of adventure, entrepreneurship and the can do spirit. The Wince family took a pair of Mrs. Wince's cousins and their families yesterday to see the Arabia Steamboat Museum. (Aside: Isn't it cool when two brothers marry two sisters?) The Steamboat Arabia was a floating ante-bellum Wal-Mart. It hit a sang in the muddy Missouri on the way to big supplies to pioneers in Nebraska and sank. 132 years later a group of men in search of buried treasure dug it up with no government money and they are sharing these incredible finds with only private support. See what shopping was like in 1856!

More Democracy for Kenya

More democracy in Africa? That's something to be thankful for.

Democrats Despise! Iraqi Hopes They Minimize!

Well, clearly my slogans need work. You say we are losing? I don't know who this "we" is. Our troops say they are winning the war and are proud of their efforts. I'm not winning or losing the war, I'm working on billing software. If you are losing the war, stop it! (Wink.) If on the other hand, you are saying our troops are losing the war, well, you aren't over there, they are. I trust them. Stop criticizing the people who are fighting and dying. It would be different if they also thought they were losing. Then you could criticize the Administration and say the Administration was losing the war. But since the troops don't agree, I just will not accept that. Here's what I'll accept: You believe the Administration should be winning faster or cheaper or better. But not that "we" are losing.

Myths

The American Enterprise gives nine Urban Legends About the Iraq War.

Pray for The Weary Warriors

It seems Kurt Vonnegut is feeling down. We need to respect our old warriors, weary of war, especially when we disagree with them. Pray for Kurt Vonnegut, John Murtha, John Kerry and any other old warrior who is tired of war.

I Like Going To The Dentist

Heh. Say Uncle likes the nitrous oxide buzz, but does not understand one dental custom at all.

The Opposite of SGT Walter J. Rausch

Here is a person, Professor John Daly, unlike SGT Walter J. Rausch, who should be fired, just because he reflects so poorly on his employer, Warren Community College. Do our institutions of higher learning know how disgusting they appear by defending people like Daly? In his email, Daly denies the 100 million killed in the Communist Holocaust. That's right, Daly is no different from a Holocaust denier. Communist sympathizers are no different, morally, than Nazi sympathizers. This isn't surprising, since Nazism is Communism's younger, less murderous, but more bigoted brother. So, does Warren Community College also employ Holocaust denying Nazi sympathizers as a sop to academic freedom? I doubt it.

Via the Gun Guy.

This Is A War For Freedom

Perhaps the Iraq War is not a war for freedom to you. But it is for this sergeant. Arguably, that gives him more moral authority than Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandi. How so? They were fighting for their own freedom, and the freedom of their own people. This sergeant is fighting for freedom not just for someone else, but for another people. Think about what surrender will do to this young man and those, like me, who support his desire to fight, win, and achieve his noble purpose.

An Argument Against Too Much Federalism

In this post I argued for federalism. I'm still not sure what Breyer would say against my arguments, but based on what I've read so far, he might say that pushing too much power down to small electoral bodies exposes them to the problem of factionalism. Representation over large groups of people dilutes factionalism by making a representative beholden to a wide variety of special interests, whereas a smaller district can easily be captured by a particular special interest group. This is a good argument. One way to solve the problem is by random appointments, like we do for juries. Ancient Athens had many randomly selected positions. Frank Herbert believed that many of our political decisions should be subject to jury review. Now that's active democracy!

Bend It

I just realized I have a new favorite movie, Bend It Like Beckham. And every time I watch it I end up with the most wonderful music running through my brain.

Active Liberty, Obtained

I got Active Liberty : Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, Stephen Breyer's new book, from the library and started reading it. Breyer believes he should interpret the Constitution in ways which promote active citizen participation in our democracy. Good thesis. I'm all for it. I will be interested to find out how he supports it. I have to wonder why he isn't more of a Federalist, though. The less power in Washington and the more at the statehouse the easier and more effective my democratic participation will be. In fact less power in the statehouse and more power at the county, city and even school board levels the more power I have. One school board per school is good, too.

When the Constitution was drafted, the entire population of our Republic was less than some cities today. Lot's of place were governed by town meetings, where everyone, not just a few aldermen, got to vote. I'd say that means we need even less power in Washington, not more.

What Does Losing Mean?

When will Congress and the President take the War against Islamic Fascism seriously?

This article, by an unknown author, not Major General Vernon Chong, describes the price of losing. The price of losing this war is no less than the price of losing the Cold War and being ruled by totalitarian Communists. Most Communists believed in communal living. And we all know that most people who lived in communes were peaceful. The price of losing this war is no less than the price of losing World War II and being ruled by totalitarian Fascists. Most Fascists were Christians. Isn't Christ the Prince of Peace? Aren't most Christians peaceful people? Of course Hitler, master of a Christian nation, murdered slightly more Christians than Jews. And Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot killed more of their own people than of us. And the Islamic Fascists are killing more of their own people, too.

Hitler, with a tiny fraction of the world's Christians behind him, plunged the world into chaos and murdered fourteen million people. Do we really want a tiny fraction of the world's Muslims to do the same? Let's fight little wars now, not big wars later. And let's not lose.