Smoke on the Water

Side the Deck!

Well, a shot across the bow from Kim is always an eye-opener in the morning!

Out on the waters, there is a time honored custom called Rendering Honors, whereupon two vessels, upon passing closely will offer up and/or return a salute to one another.  It's really quite the fire-drill when this happens, as it's a very serious matter and a point of honor, pride and dignity, especially among ships-of-the-line. 

Its tenfold the matter of honor, pride and dignity when said ships sail under different flags.

Normally, the vessel initiating the salute will organize her not-on-watch crew to "side the decks", with sailors arrayed at the lifelines, regularly spaced, standing at parade rest.  As the ships pass, the saluting ship will dip her ensign to half-mast for about four seconds, then smartly raise it to the top of the standard.

That's all fine if the ship being saluted knows ahead of time if honors are to be rendered, (which is usually agreed to via radio beforehand).  But if unprepared, the sound of the Watch Officer's voice ringing over the 1MC system, the sprinting of crew in every direction and a hurried "side the decks" in order for the saluted ship to return honors....it's much like General Quarters, but for peaceable purposes.

Sailing literature is full of accounts of small-boat skippers dipping their flag to a warship, and especially the sail training ships of various nation's Naval Academys....only to be mortified in embarrassment as hundreds upon hundreds of sailors pour onto those decks, and the ship returns proper honors.

I have been humbled thusly this morning, by an honor from no less than Kim DuToit.  And have been fire-drill typing, hoping to return that salute in the proper fashion and time.

I've got to say "thanks, Kim!", for your kind words and assessment of my.....um.... qualities.  But the fact is, Kim's reader Hg-196 reflects my attitude quite accurately, thus:

"I consider firearms, or any other means of applying physical force, to be strictly DEFENSIVE weapons.  This does not mean I am in any way passive. But my weapon of offense is THE WRITTEN WORD.  With a published article I hope to be able to CONVINCE, ultimately a far more powerful than physical force."

Exactly so.  But failing that, there's always this.........

Three groups, all at 7 yards. 

Small scale sihlouette target.

Center mass:  S&W Model 28, 4" bbl.  .38spl 148 gr. wadcutter.  50 rds, double action.

Head group:  S&W Model 28, 4" bbl. .357 Mag. 125 gr. JHP.  25 rds, doube action.

"7" ring group, abdomen:  Browning Buckmark Camper, .22lr, 10 rds, rapid fire.

Again, thanks Kim.  As always, I'm honored by your trust and friendship.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the range, too.  (during my lunch break at work, of course!)

Smooth seas and following winds to you, brother Kim.

Fear and Loathing in Guantanamo

So, let's have a look here.  Just over a week ago, the Senate Minority Whip stands up in the well of the Senate...prepared script in hand  (and don't think he hadn't well-considered each and every word), and blatantly accuses U.S. troops of being no different than the worst tyrants of the 20th century.

And of course, when he's called to account for his slander, he issues an apology that'd make Slick Willie proud, so skillful was the nuance, the misdirection and spin.  But, he's caught there, too.

photoshop created:  loyal reader in d/fw

The liberal left just can't seem to get it through their head that the men being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, aren't defendants, haven't been arrested, there won't be indictments and that there's no Statute of Limitations on terrorists and enemy combatants. 

Fifty-Three Hours

If this doesn't inspire you to live your life at least a bit better than you're living it right now, then kindly depart this page until you come to your senses.  You'll know when that's happened by the feel of that tear rolling down your cheek.

"It had been 53 hours of blood, death, tragedy, exhaustion, loss, tears and suffering for a few more hours of simple joys. Was it worth it?"

"You're absolutely damned right it was worth it."

Live like you mean it.

No wonder why I'm so damn proud to call the good Doc, my friend.

Piling On

Smoke on the Water has never been known to be a link-flinging site, but the last week's wealth of insight and wisdom out there just cries out for recognition.

It's time for a certain U.S. Senator to resign, immediately.  So yeah, I'm Piling On.

Originally, I'd searched for the perfect photo of a gauntlet to post to illustrate the point.  Our collective honor has been insulted, and I for one demand satisfaction!  And yes, if I had the glove and the gas, I'd gladly take gauntlet in hand and smack that stupid sonofabitch across the face as hard as I could.

I rather doubt he'd show at the field of honor though.  Damn shame dueling is illegal now anyway.  If ever there was a case for it as a convention, this is the one.

Short of a duel however, we have the rapier of public opinion, approbation and shame.  He may not have the innate sense of shame that he ought have.  But his lack is not a hurdle, as we can pile more and more and more shame upon him, until he collapses under the weight thereof.

Shame on you, Dick.  May you forever be an outcast from this society, your constituents and the honorable Military you so ignorantly slander and insult.  May your fall from power, from good standing, be decisive, dramatic and terminal.  May  you wallow in the guilt and shame of your betters for the rest of your days.

May you 'ever be damned with the blood of the soldiers who's lives your words will have cost.

Now then.  The links.  Read them carefully, and then perhaps you'll better understand my ire with the soon to be former Senator.  And don't hesitate to pass 'em along, or print them out to give to your MSN addled friends.

Gerard Van Der Leun illustrates that the Senate Minority Whip is indeed,  The Very Model of a Modern Major Democrat. 

"But whatever it may be on Durbin's part, it is not a mistake, an error, a foolish quip, or a prematurely senior moment. It is, in short, nothing less than a politician doing what politicians do best: following the lead of his masses."

Found on Babalu Blog's "Must Read Monday", a link to this incredibly powerful narrative of a U.S. Airman's plight as P.O.W. in the hands of the Germans in WWII.  It comes in the form of a very well written demand for the Senate Minority Whip's resignation or censure.

So Senator Durbin, to your statement: "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis ... ." I would answer, No, I would think no such thing. You should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting it. The treatment my father received was far, far worse. And remember Americans and British were considered Aryans by Hitler and were treated far better than the Slavs, Russians and Jews.

You're cheating yourself if you don't read every word of that letter.

Citizen Smash provides a copy of the letter sent to the Senate Minority Whip by Paul E. Galanti, Commander (USN, Retired).

"As one who was held in a North Vietnamese Prison for nearly seven years and whose definition of torture and bad treatment is somewhat at variance with yours, I deplore your senseless comments about alleged "barbaric treatment" at our terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo."

The Commander is just getting warmed up, there.  Be sure to find what he mentions about a Google search.

And finally, from Matt at Blackfive, this very direct letter from Captain F. R. Koenig, (USN, Retired).

"I will pledge that efforts are underway to cancel any support to you and your party. We don't want any apology. As you know, they are only words."

Matt's post also has updates regarding other letters, and the direct phone number(s) to the Senate Minority Whip's D.C. and Chicago offices, as well as his e-mail.

I'm working on my letter, which will be posted here upon transmission to the (soon to be former) Senator's offices.  Please take the time to send yours, too.

Pile on, y'all.  Pile on.

That Awkward Stage

The Jungle Telegraph. 

You know the scene from every campy Tarzan or other jungle movies in the pre-P.C. days.  Our intrepid heroes or heroines, beset and besieged from they know not where; only that the drums are beating, and that the message they carry is surely ominous.

The drums, they are a beatin'.

Reading my daily blog-list, it's clear to me that what we'd long thought of as a precipice has been all along, more like the event-horizon of a black hole.  One knows when one falls off of a cliff.  One does not know however, when he has crossed the gravitational point-of-no-return into the hungry maw of a collapsed star.  It's really not unlike the slowly-boiled frog; the sense of doom comes far after the fact of said doom is established.  At that point really, it's all over but for the crying.

Ribbit.

The title of this post comes from Claire, one of the finest minds on the net.  Here it is, in all it's famous glory:

"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."

Kevin, at the Smallest Minority posits that it indeed, too late.  From a Constitutional / Judicial point of view, I have to agree with him completely.  The Courts have usurped power over the Legislative and Executive branches of local, state and federal governments. 

And Kim DuToit points out:

"Let me make just one thing clear, before I go any further: This is not seditious talk—contained within the very heart of the Second Amendment lies the thought that one day, government gets too big for its britches."

Conceivably, I could envision the Legislative and Executive branches rallying together and limiting the scope and power of the Courts.  Sadly though, I see that only as an idealistic pipe-dream, for it shall never happen.

The left has achieved so very much of it's progressive agenda through the courts.  And the courts rely on precedence, far more than they do on original intent, or even the language written into the very Constitution they claim to so assiduously cherish.  And the left, minority though they be, will not allow the appointment of Originalist judges, much less allow legislation to pass which would rein-in the runaway horse which is the Judicial Branch.  One only needs witness the recent debacle over the so-called Nuclear Option in the Senate. 

Couple that with the rampant eliteism, money grubbing and power-maddened sense of entitled empowerment displayed by the vast majority of legislators, state and local executives and most of all, the entrenched bureaucracy, and it's clear to see that they have no motivated self-interest to return to basic, Constitutional concepts.  The idea that government has only specific, limited powers as granted by the governed, rankles with them.  They are all-powerful, or at the least, feel they're entitled to be so, given their grand and lofty status as lords of taxes, liquor, guns, highways and the like.

Add to this the extreme leftward (read; communist) tilt of the Media, and the only conclusion that can be reached is that a Quintocracy of Powers, that is the three branches of government, the bureaucracy and the media, have melded into a monolith of Goliath proportions.

A pox on all them, and their houses.

In that Civics 101 isn't taught in the schools, having been replaced by Socialist Studies and the like, I thought I'd provide a wee bit of context. 

I give you The Declaration of Independence, along with a few observations along the way.

Twisting The Turbans

I know this is a bit over the top, but Chip Gill, (one of Rob's correspondents) furnished him with this gem of an idea.

"Rob, You are invited to join me for some serious desecration. I'm not talked pussy-ass desecration like Newsweek or NYT or Amnesty International style desecration. I'm talkin the real shit desecration........."

Yeah, it's a bit extreme, but I think it's not uncalled for.

I for one, am sick and tired of the "gravitas" with which the MainSlimeMedia confers to all these Koran allegations.  The record is rife with Islamofascists defiling the Holy Bible, with perhaps the most well-known incident being that of the Palestinian occupation of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

In that protracted occupation of one of the most Holy of Christian Shrines, the pig-fellating-followers of Allah not only used pages torn from the Bible for toilet paper, but they bragged openly of so doing.  Where in the hell was the outcry from the media then? 

Anyone?.....  Bueller?

And we're supposed to be tolerant of this so-called religion of peace?

Here's my take on the matter:

photo credit:  Sondra K's site.  (see also this highy relevant post!)

Oh, and do check this site for tee-shirt that says it well, too!