Celebrate! The 101st Is Home!

Our friends are throwing a big party today for their son, Billy, who is home from Afghanistan. He is a sergeant with the 101st Airborne and was stationed in Kunar province, right on the border with Pakistan.

We rejoice with his parents, family and friends that he is home safely and with a Bronze Star to boot. This was his second deployment after a tour in Iraq.

Marine Vet Killed By Police

I waited a bit to see what happened with a story from Arizona where a Marine vet was shot to death by a police SWAT unit and allowed to bleed out while his wife frantically called 911 to get an ambulance for her husband. As it turned out, the SWAT unit was conducting a search warrant that was based on erroneous information.



And it is looking worse and worse for the SWAT team. The alleged suspect, Jose Guerena, never fired a shot but may have been holding a rifle. Apparently the police were the first to open fire - it is possible that one of the deputies accidentally discharged his weapon and that was what initiated the barrage of gunfire. Jose was allegedly shot 60 times.

The SWAT team looks like an undisciplined bunch of rookies. Listen to the gunfire in the video. I don't care how much adrenalin is coursing through your bloodstream; if you cannot practice fire discipline under extreme circumstances in a residential setting, you don't belong on SWAT. This isn't Afghanistan, it's Tucson. And don't give me that crap about tactical loads, you should have known that there was a woman and child in the house. I have been retired now for a dozen years; on the range I never received instruction on emptying my weapon as fast as I can into a residence.

The discussion forums are full of pro- and con-LEO (mostly con) remarks and some interesting observations. Such as: the decedent should have known it was the police from the noise of the siren and the officers screaming "search warrant." And he did not open the door, the police used a ram to take it down. Or, the decedent may have been putting the gun away when the cops saw him with the rifle and opened fire preemptively.

The confusion surrounding these events is not unusual. People witnessing the same incident can have conflicting stories in some details. But it is an outrage nonetheless. And the Sheriff of Pima County is an ass. I wonder if his attitude trickled down.

Why I like Ron Paul

Being English I'm probably not the best person to comment on American politics but I like this man and was willing him on in your last Presidential election. I don't suppose he's got a snowball in hell's chance against the status quo though - he speaks far too much common sense.

Round Up The Usual Suspects ... The Joos

Pat goes off on the Jew haters.



To my way of thinking, God put Isreal precisely where He wanted it in order to manifest His sustaining power.

The Arabs rage and the Jews remain.

H/T IOTW

Thoughts Of A Revolutionary

The following is an excerpt from a blog called Rantings of a Sand Monkey. This is a young Egyptian expressing his reasons for joining the Egyptian revolution.

Now, let me tell you why I joined the revolution in the first place: Besides getting rid of our past lovely authoritarian regime, all I wanted out of all this was an Egyptian bill of rights, unalienable and irrevocable no matter who is in Power. I wanted the right to free speech, the right to free expression (artistic and otherwise), the right to peaceful assembly, the right to religious freedom, the right of equality between all citizens in terms of rights & freedoms (irrespective of Gender, religion, race, lineage, language, social origin or political opinion), the right to information and transparency to keep our government always in check, the right not to be subjugated to torture, or cruel or inhumane treatment, the right for equal protection of the law and security, the right not to be arbitrarily arrested, detained, exiled or have your citizenship stripped from you, The right to be considered Innocent until proven guilty and to be tried by a fair and impartial civil tribunal, where everyone has legal representation, and finally the right to education. Those are the rights I risked life and limb for, and they are not new or novel ideas, and you can find them all, and many more, in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, right here.

To tell the truth I much prefer our very own Bill of Rights. Sand Monkey's heart is in the right place but this UN document reeks of socialism, probably because it was drafted by scheming, new world order, Jew-hating, United Nations socialists. Things like Article 25 give me the willies:

Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

In any event, I fear that the Egyptian Revolution may come to naught because of radical Islam. Already the radical Islam mob is generating noise about Egypt's relations with Israel. Sand Monkey also has his doubts:

[...]in 1991, there was the first real attempt for democratic elections in Algeria, and the Islamic Salvation Front- an Islamist party- ran on the platform that there is no democracy in Islam, and that the moment they will seize power, they will cancel future democratic elections. And they won, the majority actually voted in a party that would end all voting, which led the army to immediately cancel the election, which in turn started a civil war that plunged the country into chaos for a number of years.

Do you, Gentle Reader, ever get the impression that America is greatly and particularly blessed? Look at other revolutions - the French, the Russians, the Chinese - and see what a mess they turned into. And if we are not careful, we'll be needing another one.

God Save The Queen ... From Fools

I am not a diplomatic expert nor do I portray one on television. I do not know the exact nature of Obumbles latest diplomatic dust up, but I can sure tell when a gaff has occurred. And something about the reaction of England's elite tells me that our *hack* President *gack* has shit on the Royal Carpet. Again.



I would think the Brits are whistfully remembering when America didn't send fools to their table.





Well, at least we can be thankful that the First Wookie didn't grab the Queen's ass.

Um, I'm Not With These Guys

H/T IOTW

Late-night humour

Here's some late-night humour - in England at least. (Click to enlarge):

EpicFail

What was he thinking?

It's all very well Enda Kenny saying it was a done as a tribute to Obama but I think he should sack his speech-writer, or whoever thought it would be a good idea:

BiBi And BooBoo

From the Washington Examiner:

If it had been a fight, they would have stopped it.

Friday's showdown between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn't close, and it wasn't pretty -- though Netanyahu didn't want to leave any obvious marks. The end result was that our president is suddenly aware that Chicago rules don't work on tough-minded leaders of countries surrounded by terrorists.

The battle between the warrior and the academic was bound to turn out this way. President Obama was a community organizer once. Netanyahu was commander of the Israeli Defense Forces' elite special forces unit, Sayeret Matkal. Faculty meetings can get rough, but not as rough as the hostage rescue mission to free Sabena Flight 571.

So the president's absurd declaration about 1967 borders is off the table. In fact, the table is gone. Israel can wait out the 20 months left to Obama's presidency, or even 48 months if American voters insanely choose to experiment with epic incompetence at the top for another term. Israel isn't going back to the Auschwitz borders, and only a naive and inexperienced academic would think that Thursday's speech would do other than worsen prospects for a negotiated settlement.

This wasn't a showdown, it was a slap down.
Obama's ignorance of Israel's geopolitical situations is astounding. Israel defeated the Arab States when Obama was six years old. I was a senior in high school at the time and remember most vividly the excitement at the news that in six days Israel defeated her enemies. To many of us it was like a miracle. It was a miracle.

When Obama opened his mouth and displayed his foolishness to the entire world he literally walked into a gun fight armed with a Pez candy dispenser. Bibi ate him up.

[...]Netanyahu showed a worldwide audience that purposefulness can be as polite as it is pointed, and that Obama has a glass jaw. A clenched glass jaw, but a glass jaw nonetheless.

Israel isn't going back to the 1967 borders. Hamas cannot be a partner in peace negotiations. And Israel is a friend and a valued ally, not a lap dog. The president would do well to figure out that our country prefers Netanyahu's approach to his. Even the president's own party does.

Between 1948 and 1968 approximately 800,000 Jews were forced to relocate to Israel from almost a dozen Arab states. After the 1967 defeat Muslims instituted pogroms, killing hundreds of Jews and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee. Their property was confiscated by the Muslims.

After the 1967 war there were nearly 250,000 Jews living in Algeria, Egypt and Iraq. They had lived there for almost 2,000 years. By 2004 there were less than 250; approximately 30,000 Jews called Syria home for millenia, now there are fewer than 100.

A prayer for Israel (Exodus 23:27)
I will send my terror before thee, and will discomfit all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

Why do they do it?

And why do people fall for it? They're both rhetorical questions really: on a simplistic level they do it to ingratiate themselves and become Mr Worldwide Popularity, the people do it because it makes them feel better about themselves and their country.

I thought you might like some pics of Mr O'Bamasiah's trip to the Emerald Isles:

"There is no-one more Irish than me."

(Click to enlarge)
It's interesting to note that the comments below the article are less than complimentary.

More coverage HERE and HERE.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... ...

UPDATE: Just in: Obama's Top Ten Insults

No Wonder Israel Is Feeling A Little Twitchy

The above photos show Bibi and Obama in their early twenties. While Bibi Netanyahu was serving his beloved country, Obama - by his own admission - was getting stoned and snorting cocaine. From Newsbusters:

Contrary to what NBC's David Gregory said Friday, U.S. News & World Report editor Mort Zuckerman believes that in the wake of President Obama's Mideast speech, "The Israelis do not feel they have the Americans at their back for the first time since the founding of the state of Israel."

Gee, I wonder why.


H/T IOTW.