Smoke on the Water

One Romanian's Thoughts

My former liveaboard neighbor has sailed off to the South, and is at present in Brownsville, TX. Thanks Ed of the sloop Abracadabra, for the this great e-mail with my morning coffee.

I haven't taken the time to verify this article's bona-fides. Frankly, even if it's bogus, it's still a damn good thought. Enjoy.

Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title "C"ntarea Americii", meaning "Ode To America", on September 24, 2002 in the
Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei ("The Daily Event" or "News of the Day").

May their Secession Succeed

Again, a gem taken from the pages of Drudge.

Seems a quaint little ski resort town in Vermont is tired of an all-too-heavy State tax burden.

Vermont. Heavy Tax Burden. Candidate Dean. Promised elimination of the Bush Tax Cuts. Get the picture?

Nothing would please me more than for the courageous people of this small town to succeed in secession.

New Hampshire. Live Free or Die. vs Vermont. Is For ________ <-fill in blank Lovers.

Yeah, I know Vermont's motto is really "Freedom and Unity". But hell, even they don't believe that anymore, and some of 'em want to dis-unify.

If I lived there, that's how I'd vote.

Spin, Span, Spun

Well, how are they gonna spin this one?

Seems that the King of the Donks is on record (in Portugal, anyway), as supporting the claim that Saddam did in fact possess Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Former US president Bill Clinton said in October during a visit to Portugal that he was convinced Iraq had weapons of mass destruction up until the fall of Saddam Hussein, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said.

When slick sent Tomahawks to visit Saddam in '98, (to make noise to cover up the scandal of the day), he made the entire WMD argument, in even stronger terms than President Bush did in the leadup to the Iraq war. Kind of hard to spin out of those strongly worded speeches, ain't it, Bill?

Admiration

I have to take a moment to salute my friend, Mr. Rivrdog. I'm truly humbled. Riding out Hurricane Claudette aboard ship as I did here in Galveston Bay, well, it wasn't shit compared to what he and his crew have endured over the past three days, and are enduring, still.

There is courage, character, selflessness and dedication in every syllable of every post he's shared with us. Frankly, how he found the time to keep us appraised of his plight is astonishing to me. For the record.

Two boats; lost. All dock sheds; lost. All hands safe and sound, and heroes all.

Drink Alert Detour

From the kitchen of Chef Steve, Attorney, Pianist and all around Raconteur, this dish on Dean.

I would, if I were you, remove all liquids from the vicinity of your keyboard.

Survival and Severe Losses: Rivrdog

The good news is that Rivrdog is alive, dry and well.

Plenty of bad news though. Too much bad news, and new wave of storms bringing ever more ice, agony and destruction to the Northwest. I've seen carports collapse under snow in a freak 1984 snowstorm in San Antonio, TX (we had 16" in a day). What he's dealing with there is several orders of magnatude more severe.

I've moved his update from the comments in the "Rivrdog SOS" post to here. It stands alone, as it should.

Scientific Sense

After all of the hysteria over the Mad Cow scare, it's nice to find a bit of a counterweight to the tons of bullshit being dropped by the mass lowest common denominator media.

Steven Milloy has written a nice piece over on the Fox News website. A clear and concise examination of the lack of real science undergirding the mad cow hysteria.

Acidman made the point much better than I, when introducing this very important speech by Michael Chrichton. I'd suggest you spend a few minutes reading both of 'em.

Me, I'll be finishing off this pot of Sicilian Lentil Soup with a base of beautifully sauteed and seared sirloin.

Enjoy your reading while I enjoy my dinner.

Riverdog S.O.S.

I won't say much. This from the comments in my previous Rivrdog Update. It needs it's own space though.

***BREAKING RIVRDOG NEWS***

11:34 am Pacific, RIVRDOG posts an UPDATE to the comments of this post. The good news is that he's okay. Looks like a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. What a tunnel though. Read it all.

Evening update: I've got a few minutes until my next watch here. I'm in the fight of my life trying to save this place. Roof-walking in a blizzard saved the small shed, but when we finished, the two of us up on top decided we couldn't continue since we both fell several times and almost went into the 40 degree water. We unassed the roof without clearing the big shed roof, which looked ok at the time. After my dinner break, we took two refugee boats aboard the moorage that had to flee theirs which was in worse shape. In that moorage, a roof-walker fell off the roof and the captain of the boat that came to me rescued him.

Then the freezing rain started.

Drink Alert ( I warned you!)

One of the pleasures of having one's own blog is to render the occasional well deserved fisking of some tinfoil hatted, looney tunes moonbat.

This news article though, is a tough one. I don't think I can fisk it in such a manner that does it's subject any more damage than just the self-evident facts.

So, with no further ado:

January 6, 2004, 8:44 PM EST

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Federal spending was the topic and Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich came prepared with a pie chart to argue his point about a bloated Pentagon budget.

But although many listened to Tuesday's presidential debate, few could see the Ohio congressman's prop.

The debate was broadcast only on National Public Radio. (emphasis mine)

As Kucinich challenged Democratic front-runner Howard Dean for refusing to acknowledge that the Pentagon budget needs to be cut, debate moderator Neal Conan of NPR interrupted.

"Congressman Kucinich is holding up a pie chart, which is not truly effective on radio," Conan told his listeners.

Kucinich was not deterred.

"Well, it's effective if Howard can see it," he replied.

Perhaps I can summarize.

NPR. + Dennis Kucinich = Bad Saturday Nite Live sketch, but for real!

Hell, SNL hasn't been that funny since Dennis Miller was a democrat.

Ouch! <- understatement

Beejus, Donnie goes and survives the U.S. Army's Parachute Jump School, and then this happens to him on New Year's Eve. Y'all go visit him and leave some encouragement in his comments.

Thanks to Sam for the heads-up.

Get well soon, Donnie.

Rivrdog Update

Most fortunately, Riverdog is on top of his game, not only in his current dance with Mother Nature, but with his mastery of internet connectivity as well. My poor dial-up would have crapped out hours ago in that blizzard. So, here's his latest update.

A Beautiful Mind

No, not the Hollywood movie.

Something much better, from someone much, much better. This is from a truly, beautiful mind. See what I mean:

Both Democrats and Republicans are selfish creatures, to be sure. That’s not where they differ. Where they do differ is this: one group looks at what has worked in the past and wants to keep trying it. The other looks at what hasn’t worked in the past and wants to keep trying that.

That she's also a beautiful lady is quite the bonus.

Almost Contraband

I have just finished a Great Cigar.

It was perhaps the ugliest one I've ever smoked. Back in November, I'd receieved a shipment of three cigars from General Cigar Company for a taste test and review. These did not arrive in the nicest shape for premium cigars. They'd dried out in shipment, and some box damage had occured as well.

Tonight's cigar was the most badly damaged one. About a quarter of the wrapper was hanging off in shreds. I have the necessary means to repair damaged cigars, and had done the best I could. The vegetable glue which the cigar makers use when rolling 'em is avaiable to the aficianado, and is a handy thing to have.

Shipmates

One of the worst (legitimate) feelings one can have is to know of a friend in a tough spot, and be completely unable to lend a hand. Having stayed on board my sloop through a hurricane, two serious tropical storms and several other near-misses, I surely understand that he has no choice, and must guard his boat and the fleet.

If I could be there with him at the marina, I'd do so in a flash. Maybe only we sailors know the value of our boats, or maybe we're just plumb crazy. Either way, I'd be proud to face the storm with him, no matter the outcome.

Tony the Tiger

Britain's Prime Minister might be a statist liberal in the long run, but when it comes to doing the right thing in regards to the war on terror, his balls are second to none.

We find P.M. Blair today, happily shaking hands with Commonwealth troops in BASRA, IRAQ!

Props to Drudge for the link. I'm not sure of the genisis of this "MyWay.com" news site. But I am disturbed by such a positive story being punctuated throughout with captioned photos featuring damage caused by U.S. Army ordnance, including a few kids standing just a few feet from an unexploded mortar round.

Typical of a liberal media spin, they can't let a positive story run without warping the facts through their sour-grape, lemon-sucking viewpoint of the world. And they're gonna make damn sure that you see things the way they do, hence, the none too subtle inclusion of those photos.

Regardless, P.M. Blair flew in on an armed Chinook helicopter. That's a gutsy move. Helicopters are the prize of choice for the baathist bastards, imported palestinians and their ilk. I sure hope there were a couple of gunships flying wing for that mission.

So, in tribute to our British and other commonwealth allies: God Save the Queen!

Dizzy Dean

Okay, someody tell me just why the nice young men in their clean, white coats haven't come to cart this asshole off to the looney bin.

Oh, wait, it might be 'cause they'd have to make room for a few million of his bong water sucking sycophants while they're at it?

I'm standing by my earlier prediction regarding Howie. The donkination is his to lose, and he's doing a fine job of doing exactly that. For example, in today's New York Post, he goes off on this bit of circular logic.

An Honored Guest (post, that is)

The net is an interesting place, indeed. One phenomenon we experience is having friends whom we've never met. Kind of defines much of the blogosphere, come to think about it.

One such person and group in my world is a great crowd who appear in my e mail in their large numbers. Although they're scattered nationwide, many of 'em live here in the Houston/Galveston area. Every one of this bunch are truly worthy of the term "Cigar Aficianado". (And "Gourmand", Sommelier, etc.)

Righteous Anger

My only addition to this post, is don't skimp on the ammo, you can never have too many rounds on hand.

Props to Misha for the link.

Long Distance Operators

I know it's hard to believe, but the origin of this article is the New York Times. Amazingly, they've not spun it into some anti-American, anti-military screed. I linked to the Houston Chronicle for you, so you won't have to register with the NYT.

The story is factual, non-sensationalized and doesn't (for a refreshing change), draw in some unrleated quotes from the Saddam-felching left to illustrate how eeeeeevil these exceptional soldiers are.

A most satisfactory righteous shooting, indeed.

Do read the entire article, but here's a teaser:

"I shot one guy in the head, and his head exploded," said Sgt. Randy Davis, one of about 40 snipers in the Army's new 3,600-soldier Stryker Brigade, from Fort Lewis, Wash. "Usually, though, you just see a dust cloud pop up off their clothes, and see a little blood splatter come out the front."

I've shot more than my share of deer, with both headshots and heart/lung shots. The descriptions are exactly correct. Kudos to Eric Schmitt for reporting accuracy. Medals to Sgt. Davis for his accuracy, as well.

Further into the article:

Listening to his partner, Davis nodded in agreement: "As soon as they picked up a weapon and tried to engage U.S. soldiers, they forfeited all their rights to life, is how I look at it."

I share his view on that, and the same goes for anoyone who would harm my family, home or any of you, my friends.

They're also defending the likes of Howard Dean and the Hildebeest. Neither of whom are worthy to wipe the dust from these soldier's boots.

UPDATE The original NYT story no longer appears to be "registration required". So, here it is. Also, the very same Stryker Battalion from whence the snipers hail, now has their own blog up and running. Their take on the story is worth reading. Leave 'em a comment and a good word while you're there, m'kay?

Happy New Year !

My sincere thanks to every reader, every commenter, and even the occasional troll. May your 2004 exceed your highest dreams, may your aspirations be fulfilled, and may joy, peace and happiness fill the year to come.

To the bloggers who've preceeded me and prodded me to write, my humble and heartfelt thanks and appreciation. Thank you for seeing in me that which I failed to see in myself.

I pray I won't let you down.

This glass is raised to you.

*cheers!*

Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX