Month: November 2005

The email reproduced below is the one Heidi at Euphoric Reality has asked folks repost-really disseminate as far and wide as possible. She recieved word of it from Sgt. Hook and has posted it here (as I note in my “PSA” below). Heidi’s comment, in part asks of us, “If you have your own blog, you now have the chance to show your support for the troops in a very small way that costs you NOTHING. Can Will you do it? I really want to know, so I await your reply.”

You got it, Heidi:

Mom,

Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another company in our batallion. I can no longer be silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis and Americans everyday. Send it to a congressman if you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let this message be heard please…

My fellow Americans, I have a task for those with the courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind need to see. I am not a political man nor one with great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a couple years ago.

I have watched on television how the American public questions why their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has been the most costly and sought after cause in our small span of existence on our little planet. Bought in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is given to every man, woman, and child I believe by God. I am talking of freedom.

Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture it’s true meaning or power. “For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.” I read that once and it couldn’t be more true. It’s not the average American’s fault that he or she is “blind and deaf” to the taste of freedom. Most Americans are born into their God-given right so it is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I would even dare to say that it isn’t surprising that they take for granted what they have had all their life. My experiences in the military however opened my eyes to the truth.

Ironically you will find the biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from those who have had no military experience and haven’t had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of those who are daring enough to question such a noble cause to come here for just a month and see it first hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be silenced.

I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on the President’s lawn and say that America isn’t worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and said Iraq isn’t worth dying for. She badmouthed all that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is rolling over in his grave.

Ladies and gentleman I ask you this. What if you lived in a country that wasn’t free? What if someone told you when you could have heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no sewage systems so human waste flowed into the streets? What if someone would kill you for bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren’t allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or have cell phones unless under extreme censorship? What if you couldn’t put shoes on your child’s feet?

You need not have a great understanding of the world but rather common sense to realize that it is our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If you lived that way would you not want someone to help you????

The Iraqis pour into the streets to wave at us and when we liberated the cities during the war they gathered in the thousands to cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldiers in WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!! Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes over here, yet Americans badmouth our President for having us here.

Every police station here has a dozen or more memorials for officers that were murdered trying to ensure that their people live free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed every day. What if it were your country? What would your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the blood that may be shed. The media never reports the true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqis. Yes, there are bad one’s here, but I assure you they are a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big enough to cause worry in this country’s future.

I have watched brave souls give their all and lose their lives and limbs for this cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the “deaf and blind” be the only voice shouting. Stonewall Jackson once said, “All that I have, all that I am is at the service of the country.” For these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till I can no longer. These men and women are heroes. Their spirit lives on in their military and they will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain but rather for a cause that is larger than all of us.

My fellow countrymen and women, we are not overseas for our country alone but also another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne.

Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic, isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know. We are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal. It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because, Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter what country it is! And after the world is free only then can we hope to have peace.

SGT XXX and 1st Platoon
101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

For more real reporting of how the “boots on the ground” view their service in Iraq, be sure to touch base with Michael Yon’s blog regularly.

Linked at MacStansbury’s, Cao’s Blog, Don Surber, and Euphoric Reality

This is an Open Post-See instructions below the Fair Tax content

I’ve been touting books about the Fair Tax proposal for a while, now, and I even provided links to some blogs that cover this much-needed reform proposal. I thought this time I’d just give some gathered quotes and links and let y’all loose to look at what others who have actually looked at the Fair tax are saying. (Cos there are a lot of folks who talk about it without getting any facts first. Naturally they are almost all… but maybe I won’t go there in this post, ‘K? 🙂

Over at Americans for Fair Taxation, a site whose subtitle is, “Keep Your Entire Paycheck. Make April 15 Just Another Day”, we find this comment in a post titled, Support From the Least Expected:

I have the FairTax book, and it’s worth more than anything. What’s even funnier, I WORK FOR THE IRS over in Chamblee. I type in all the 1040’s you could ever imagine. I try to visually interpret the chicken-scratching that some people call writing. I know about the waste that goes into compliance and enforcement. All for a tax system that was never properly ratified back in 1913. Waste, Waste, Waste! I can’t wait for the FairTax !!! Sure it’ll cost me my cushy government job, but I don’t really mind. I’ll have enough money to start MY OWN BUSINESS for the first time in my life, and that feels great. Count on my vote!!!

A link to more at the post. And do check out this post as well: Zero Icome Tax and Zero Payroll Tax. Interesting stuff. At Tax Reform Fair To All.

And you know it has to be a good idea when (ignoring most of the book and getting facts flat out wrong) the New York Times (link to a post quoting the article) gives The Fair Tax

book a tepid (at best) review.

How about this one? Fair Tax wins CNBC Poll 74% to 26%or this one: Flat Tax has Flat Tires for Our Economy; The Fair Tax Supercharges.

Key quote:

The Fair Tax is a fully researched and documented package that has already been put into full legislative form and is waiting in the garage of Congress, ready to rev up our economy and give every American Family a raise in take home pay. The AFFT (www.fairtax.org) has spent the last ten years and over 22 million dollars in focus group studies, polls and economic research to see what works well economically and works well for American families.

There’s a lot more info out there folks. Everything from the numbers the Fair Tax folks have researched to just plain old horse sense says the Fair tax proposal will significantly affect YOUR life for the better… if we can get Congresscritters to simply do what’s right. Yeh, yeh: the blind will see, the lame walk, the dead rise and we’ll all fly away before that happens… *sigh* But we ought to try.

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PSA Insert:

From Heidi @ Euphoric Reality, this snippet of a letter she recieved from Iraq:

“…Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic, isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know.”

Read the whole thing, and pass it on, folks. [UPDATE: Well, this is now spreading pretty quickly, but one of my fav presentations of it is at Cathouse Chat. Good on you, R’Cat.]

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Open Post info: Edit a post (or posts 🙂 of your own that you want to have featured here to include a link to this post. Trackback to my trackback URI (just right-click on “trackback” atthe foot of this post and select “copy link” or “copy link location”–however your browser indicates. If your blog software can’t send trackback pings you can use Wizbang’s Standalone Trackback Pinger. If you have trouble, please leave a comment. I’ll try to help. Be sure to reference the Open Trackback Alliance blogroll and the Open Trackback Provider blogroll in my left sidebar. The more you play, the more folks will see your posts!

Update: for folks that trackbacks are new to, here’s what you need to trackback to this post:

Link this URL: http://thirdworldcounty.blogspot.com/2005/11/fair-taxand-open-post.html

in your post somewhere.

Enter this trackback URI in your trackback pinger:

http://www.haloscan.com/tb/mnmus/113229845991981187/

Linked at MacStansbury’s, The Blue State Conservatives, The Conservative Cat, Bloggin’ Outloud, Friday Open Tar Pit #4, Cao’s Blog, Point Five, Big Dog’s Weblog, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Don Surber, Stuck on Stupid, NIF, (Oh, dear, what can the matter be, NIF’s so long at the fair… and “…he promised to buy me a fairing should please me… “), Adam’s Blog, Jo’s Cafe, Basil’s Blog, Stray Dog, GM Roper’s Corner -and more when folks get their Open Posts up later today.

Technorati : Fair Tax
Del.icio.us : Fair Tax

Well, even though The Alliance still seems to be stuck on the “Mainstream Media” meme…

(Mass media Podpeople are so far OUT of the mainstream as to be lost in a backwaterstagnant pond), the latest Precision Guided Humor Assignment roundup is up over at The Alliance of Free Blogs headquarters. The assignment? A piece on so-called “MSM” Patriotism.

My answer’s here, but you really ought to check out some of the other pieces as well.

We’ve all seen the blogosphere band together to help the needy…

Here’s one more worthy cause, offered up by The Conservative Cat. Please help this man:

Show-America and the world!-how much you care.

Linked at TMH’s Bacon Bits, Don Surber, Stop the ACLU, and Basil’s Blog.

Open Posts, or Open Trackback Posts, and blogrolls of people wanting to play, are proliferating. But I’ve noticed something: some folks just can’t (or won’t) play “fair”.

Maybe it’s a case of folks just not paying attention, or one or two (no! surely not in the blogosphere! heh) who are just too dim to understand the idea.

In outline, it’s simple enough, and Samantha Burns has a great FAQ for the Open Trackback Alliance that is more detailed than what I’m about to present, but, IMO, it’s a “must read” for folks who wanna play the Open Trackbacks game.

But in outline:

1. Bloggers who feel they have a post worth sharing around can edit that post to include a link to an “Open Post” on another blog. They then
2. Trackback to that “Open Post” using their blogging software, a third party solution like Haloscan or Whizbang!’s Standalone Trackback Pinger.
3. Lastly, and here’s where the process seems to elude some folks, the Open Post MUST display the trackbacks ON THE BLOG’S FRONT PAGE, NOT ONLY ON THE BLOGPOST’S OWN SEPARATE PAGE. Several (and you know who you are, now, I hope) bloggers just don’t have that little important detail in their heads. Don Surber‘s a real champ. He has a Blogspot blog that is NOT configured with Basil’s Haloscan Hack, and so he dutifully brings 15 to 30 trackbacks from his Haloscan trackback page out “up front” daily. It’s drudgery, I know cos I tried it-once-but shows Surber to be a real class act, IMO.

So, you folks who are link-whoring fake “Open Posts” without having the trackbacks show up on your front page, get with it, eh?

🙂

Blogspot gripe

(yeh, yeh: Two Babes and a Brain-I always wonder: which one of the babes is Pinky, and when did he visit Johns Hopkins?-is griping about Typepad, too)

My Stop the ACLU post for today… disappeared when I tried a small edit. Blogger crashed two (count ’em two!) different browsers attempting to edit/recover the post. Finally, recovering it allowed it to show up as a draft and be republished.

*sigh*

As Hugh (a frequent commenter here) would sarcastically say, “It’s George Bush’s fault.”

heh

indeed

“But I think that demonizing the ACLU is a bit silly…

… I do feel that they’ve become overly partisan in recent years, but they still do good work … “-Glenn Reynolds

There are two things that bother me about that statement made by Glenn Reynolds in the interview with Stop the ACLU the other day. Are ACLU detractors “demonizing” it? If their assertions about the nature of the ACLU are true, what defense is it to claim that the ACLU does “some good”?

First, a language lesson*, then an illustrative analogy. See the word below?

It ought to look familiar. It’s still used in that form, as a borrowed, word (“diablo”) in Spanish, for example. In an only slightly altered spelling, it becomes ‘devil” in English. Why the language lesson? Because the word, if translated from the Koine Greek, means pretty much the same thing as the Old Testament word “satan”-adversary, false accuser, slanderer.

Hmmm… so is it “demonizing” the ACLU to simply recognize what it is and what it does? In a word, no.

Take a look at how the ACLU twists the Constitution (_1_, _2_) in order to make false accusations against people and organizations. Heck! Look at how that twisting is itself a slander of the Constitution and its authors! Indeed, the ACLU has (admirably, at least in its steadfastness, unlike Congress) stayed true to its communist origins in its unrelenting efforts to undermine the Constitution.

Has the ACLU done some good along the way? Yes. (Well, I imagine a rabid, syphilitic blind pig finds the ocassional acorn, too, but what harm might it do along the way?) But think for a minute: serial killers of the “organized type” are often thought of as “nice guys” and are often people with productive lives and a reputation for good works in their communities. Doing some good cn be either a by-product of maintaining cover or just happenstance. The important thing to consider is this: what is a person’s (or an organization’s) fundamental character and behavior?

With the ACLU, it’s attacks on our Constitutional rights under the disingenuous cover of protecting them. So naturally, along the way-either by happenstance or to maintain cover-this serial abuser of our rights has done “some good” (in the immortal words of Instapundit).

And that brings me to my threatened analogy-*heh*-in illustration of the other problem I have with the “it’s silly to demonize the ACLU” attitude. Would you feed your children milk adulterated with a slurry of feces? If so, how little feces would the milk have to contain for you to consider it “good enough” for consumption? How about, would you feed your children a slurry of feces with just a wee tad of milk in it, because, after all, milk does a body good?

I think you can see the obvious analogy I’m drawing. Compromise with evil (lies and slander certainly qualify, don’t they?) is… evil.

Stop the ACLU.

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or email GribbitR@gmail.com.You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 115 blogs already on board. (See the blogroll in my sidebar.)

Linked at TMH’s Bacon Bits, where The Mary Hunter is featuring a review of another fine blog, in fact, the “blogmama” of the Open Trackback Alliance. heh. indeed. (See the blogroll in my left sidebar.). Also linked at Don Surber, The Conservative Cat (who has wisely quoted a TWCâ„¢ comment-heh-and built upon it some plausible speculation about Demoncrappic plans for 2006), Stop the ACLU, Brussels Journals, California Conservative, Choose Life!, Euphoric Reality, Jo’s Cafe, Stuck on Stupid, It’s a Pundit, bRight & Early, Basil’s Blog (and keep on heaping praise on Basil for “Basil’s Haloscan Hack” that allows me to do true open posts on Blogger! WTG, Basil!), Political Teen: Right on Right, and NIF (still MIA. “Won’t you come back N-I-F? Won’t you come back?” Personally, I think someone is just going for a world record number of trackbacks for one post. :-).

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*Because I am not certain Koine characters will reproduce in your browser accurately, since you’d likely need to both have the character set installed on your computer and its use specified for your browser, OR I’d need to put the character set on a server and do some html magic to get it to serve up, it was just easier to insert a pic of the word.

*sigh* Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet…

But sometimes, the bullet, she bites back. heh

As you can see (unless you’re a first-time reader :-), I’ve changed my blog template. The old one had become inexplicably corrupted a couple of weeks ago, things were crowded and messy, oh, heck, it was just time for a change.

This template (bones obtained here and totally screwed up by me, no doubt-heh) was pretty much what I was looking for–3 columns, barebones layout. Pretty simple, really. I still have quite a bit of work getting some of the scripted blogrolls to display properly, and you’ll notice a lot of archived (and even some from as recent as… the beginning of this week!) posts will look a bit wonky–especially if any graphics have been inserted that were sized for the old layout in absolute sizing instead of percentages. Because of Blogger glitches, I’ve also used three or four different ways (different softwares, different uploading techniques) to keep things going over the last couple of weeks, especially. Those Blogspot glitches seem to have cleared up with the last coupla server changes, so maybe future posts will be better, and I may even have time to go back and fix a few of the more recent ugly posts.

But posting is going to be intermixed with tweaking over the next few days (or week), so expect a slightly bumpy ride, eh?

🙂

Note: from here on out (until I change my mind… again), all Open Posts will include “O.P.” in the subject line.

I’ve blogged on the “65¢ Solution” before, but as it’s gaining momentum, I thought it about time to touch base with the idea again. (But do CLICK through that link above to this one, too, ‘K?)

Following up, even a cursory read reveals the typical problem with good ideas: feature bloat, leading to an invocation of the

“Nationally, 61.5 percent of education operational budgets reach the classrooms. Why make a fuss about 3.5 percent? Because it amounts to $13 billion. Only four states (Utah, Tennessee, New York, Maine) spend at least 65 percent of their budgets in classrooms. Fifteen states spend less than 60 percent. The worst jurisdiction — Washington, D.C., of course — spends less than 50 percent.”_1_

Of course, as per my assertions here and elsewhere , I believe that a large part of the wasted dollars in public education are monies spent on school administrators. An optimistic guesstimate would be that perhaps 1 out of 1,000 public school administrators is not an absolute idiot. Most are idiots and actively harmful to the process of teaching/learning.

“… according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the category of support services outside the classroom includes crucial student services such as librarians, school nurses and transportation.”

So while, yes, I do believe the 65% Solution is a good idea on paper, the way it’s working out is just more of the same old educaca: shuffle non-essential crap into the “classroom instruction” definition so that administrators can claim to be meeting a goal of spending a certain percentage of their funding on classroom instruction. (Sports? Classroom instruction?!?!?! Gimme a break!)

Linked at Cao’s Blog, Adam’s Blog, Don Surber, Stop The ACLU, Stuck on Stupid, Diane’s Stuff, MacStansbury, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Euphoric Reality, Peakah’s Pub, and Basil’s Blog.

Here’s what I like most about the recent spate of Open Trackback posts: discovering new (to me) bloggers. I think what I may do over the next few Open Posts is feature one or two that have “discovered themselves” to me via tracking back to my Open Posts.

He describes himself as

“… a middle aged happily married guy. Still a Registered Democrat but I’m really disapointed in my party right now. A complete News and History Junkie with lots of opinions.”

Did he say “news and history junkie”? Well, check out The Real Ugly American. He has something to say. And he’s definitely a news and history junkie. Try this post out for size: Headlines 11.07.05. There’s bound to be something significant you missed that he has a link to in that post. And that’s just one. From last week. Or how about his Democrats React to Suggestion of Supporting Iraq / Open Trackbacks, posted Monday

? Get over there and read it!

I love this stuff!

One more, and then it’s time for YOUR posts. Just include a link to this post and trackback to here. Your blognames, links and summaries will fill the rest of this post.

Freedom Folks. Funny stuff. Why I trust polls. Droll. Very, very droll. I could read this kinda stuff every day. In fact, I think I will!

Check my (left) Sidebar for the

Check my (left) Sidebar for the Open Trackback Alliance and Open Trackback Provider blogrolls and hit ’em all!

Linked at Cao’s Blog, Adam’s Blog, Don Surber, Stop The ACLU, Stuck on Stupid, Diane’s Stuff, MacStansbury, and Basil’s Blog.

Oops! Oh-Wah. Oh-Wah tah. Oh-Wah tah-goo. Oh-Wah tah-goo Siam. Yep. Still not enough of the Holy Brew in me yet. One of the folks I link to above got a “sorta multiple trackback” cos I accidentally )stupidly) posted a duplicate of this post with auto-trackback (for one link, only) enabled. No, I do not know which one cos in my coffee-deprived state, I deleted the doop post before checking.

*sigh*

Apologies.

Oh-Wah tah-goo Siam.