LT Carl Goforth: Teflon Don and I are swapping stories around the BBQ in front of Charlie Medical. Missions have been completed, and within days we begin the long journey home to friends and family and pick up the pieces we left off 8-12 months ago. The Army medical staff are throwing one last BBQ before the old surgical team gets replaced and heads out later…
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
Investment tips for 2007
For all of you with any money left, be aware of these expected mergers so that you can get in on the ground floor and make some big bucks in 2008.
1. Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W. R.Grace Co. Will merge and become: Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.
2. Polygram Records, Warner Bros, and Zesta Crackers join forces and become: Poly, Warner Cracker.
3. 3M will merge with Goodyear and become: MMMGood.
4. Zippo Manufacturing, Audi Motors, Dofasco, and Dakota Mining will merge and become: ZipAudiDoDa.
5. FedEx is expected to join its competitor, UPS, and become: FedUP.
6. Fairchild Electronics and Honeywell Computers will become: Fairwell Honeychild.
7. Grey Poupon and Docker Pants are expected to become: Poupon Pants.
8. Knotts Berry Farm and the National Organization of Women will become: Knott NOW!
9. Victoria’s Secret and Smith & Wesson will merge under the new name:Titty Titty Bang Bang
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Spiritual Judasim by David Ariel.
Long ago, we taught the world a new melody of faith and morality. Since then, we have acquired all the goodness of the world in our travels through each civilization. Although most of the cultures through which we have passed are now gone, we have preserved the best of what they had to offer and have transmitted it to their successors. We liberated the sparks of holiness in each civilization, often paying the terrible price of suffering in the process. As the Hasidic leader Rabbi Elimelech of Lizansk said, “Is it Israel”s particular task to work hard at freeing the trapped holy sparks.” “The Unfinished Symphony,” pp 257-9
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: I do have choices and I can learn to be in charge. One happy outgrowth of being in charge is high self-esteem. As I come to control more of the events in my life, my self esteem rises.
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Rigging Nigeria.
(I’m sorry, that last was mine. I couldn’t resist. I’m so ashamed.)
Teflon Don: We’re living in them. No, not those end times…I don’t know anything about those. Our time here will soon be up. It doesn’t seem that way; no matter how much gear I pack up and turn in, this desert still feels normal, still feels like home. A year doesn’t seem that long — twelve months, less than five percent of my life to date — but I barely recall what…
Two years ago snipers were hired to thin the deer herds in Cuyaghoga County. The snipers would place bait — piles of corn — to attract the deer and then kill the animals cleanly. I know that some people became really upset about the program, but it really was the most humane way to deal with an overpopulation that we created.
But this morning I read in the Washington Post about a program sanctioned by my government to do the same with humans; with Iraqi citizens, without certain knowledge of guilt.
A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of “bait,” such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.
The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.
“Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy,” Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. “Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces.”
Just suppose you’re a starving Iraqi father with starving children. You’re no criminal or insurgent but you can’t stand the cries of your children at night. You see ammunition in a back alley and realize that there is a guy in your neighborhood who might give you enough money in exchange for the ammunition to feed your family for a few weeks.
You don’t like the idea, but the kids are hungry. So you look around. You slowly walk up to the ammunition. You look around again. No one is watching. You bend over to pick up the ammunition. And a 50-caliber bullet enters your forehead and blows out the back of your skull, scattering your brains down the alley.
And this is the way we think we can win the admiration of the Iraqi people?
I have one message to Cleveland+: Forget the billboards, fix this mess.
Apologies for the long post, but the story is illustrative of Cleveland”s challenges…not enough of our highly compensated chamber, economic development, and tourism professionals (and their retinue of consultants) are paying attention to the basics.
Cleveland”s going to build an international reputation with a Medical Mart catering to sophisticated visitors?
Not with this nonsense. Ed Morrison
My friend Molly invited me over last evening to see an encore presentation of this week’s Bill Maher show because of an exchange with Michael Scheuer over Israel. That conversation was interesting, but what struck me was Maher’s discussion with panelists Janeane Garofalo and Salman Rushdie about the war in Iraq.
At the end of show, Molly asked me what I thought and I told her, I think Bill Maher needs to take a year off and put his show on the road for free at every college campus in the country. He needs to become the Bob Hope of the Anti-War Movement and bring together all the entertainment and political voices he can to put pressure on our Congress to grow a spine and stop the insanity.
That is very easy for me to say. I’m asking Maher to put his career on hold and make a huge sacrifice. And that makes me think about what sacrifices I’m willing to make. Riding to Phoenix this morning I began to form a metric for sacrifice in my head; a giving scale of one’s self.
Here’s my first pass, a scale where 10 is total devotion and one is the least anyone might do if they oppose the war.
10. Risk death and long imprisonment by committing acts of violence against the war.
9. Risk imprisonment and death by committing acts of non-violence against the war.
8. Risk imprisonment for acts of non-violence against the war.
7. Take a leadership position in an organization against the war.
6. Join a organization opposed to the war
5. Financially support politicians against the war.
4. Vote for and support politicians against the war.
3. Write publicly against the war.
2. Speak publicly against the war.
1. Speak privately against the war.
That’s a rough list. I’m really looking for feedback here. What would you add? What would you change? What would you reposition? What would you do?
As most of you have figured out by now, my dad isn’t the only one who sends me fun stuff via email. Cailin, another regular reader has decided make some of us think this morning. Don’t worry, there still plenty of stuff to come From My Dad, but occasionally I’ll toss a few from readers like Cailin into the hopper as well.
A man and his dog were walking along a road, enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall that looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent mother-of-pearl gate in the arch, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate and saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, “Excuse me, where are we?”
“This is Heaven, sir,” the man answered.
“Wow! Would you happen to have some water?” the man asked.
“Of course, sir. Come right in, and I’ll have some ice water brought right up.”
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.”Can my friend,” gesturing toward his dog, “come in, too?” the traveler asked.
“I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t accept pets.” The man thought a moment, and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
“Excuse me!” he called to the man. “Do you have any water?”
“Yeah, sure, there’s a pump over there, come on in.”
“How about my friend here?” the traveler gestured to the dog.
“There should be a bowl by the pump.”
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl for the dog and took a long drink himself. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
“What do you call this place?” the traveler asked.
“This is Heaven,” he answered.
“Well, that’s confusing,” the traveler said, “The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.”
“Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That’s hell.”
“Doesn’t it make you mad for them to use your name like that?”
“No, we’re just happy they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.”
I’ve had a number of dogs in my life and I’ve had a very strange reaction to this story: it makes me cry.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Spiritual Judasim by David Ariel.
The Jewish people are like an orchestra trained in the best music schools in the world. We have played in the great symphonies of Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire, the Golden Age of Islam, medieval and modern Europe, and now in the United States and Israel. Our orchestra has not always been welcome and sometimes we have been forced to leave the concert hall prematurely, be we have always absorbed the best theory and practice and applied them to our own score. As we moved from one civilization to another, not usually by choice, we brought the cumulative traditions of all the cultures we had absorbed along with us. We brought the best of what we had learned along the way to each new civilization that we entered. We cross-pollinated different cultures and created a strong and durable Judaism. From the essay: “The Unfinished Symphony,” pp 257-9
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: How often do I have the kind of day when I feel I hold the world on a string? The moment I feel this way is the moment when I am most in control of the events in my life: most in control of what I am doing, most in control in my relationships with others.
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Get Free or Cheap Books… Give Away Your Old Ones.
I’ve been following the unfolding story about the mysterious raid into Syria by Israeli jets. The Times of London now reports that it was more than just a fly-over/bomb attack. Israeli ground troops were involved and they brought home a prize: samples of North Korean nuclear material.
Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.
The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.
They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
In a parallel story, Times reporter Sarah Baxter wrote this morning:
Israeli commandos from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – almost certainly dressed in Syrian uniforms – made their way stealthily towards a secret military compound near Dayr az-Zawr in northern Syria. They were looking for proof that Syria and North Korea were collaborating on a nuclear programme.
Israel had been surveying the site for months, according to Washington and Israeli sources. President George W Bush was told during the summer that Israeli intelligence suggested North Korean personnel and nuclear-related material were at the Syrian site.
Israel, according to Baxter’s reporting was prepared to bomb the site without confirmation on the ground, but the United States demanded proof before it sanctioned the attack.
Israel was determined not to take any chances with its neighbour. Following the example set by its raid on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak 1981, it drew up plans to bomb the Syrian compound.
But Washington was not satisfied. It demanded clear evidence of nuclear-related activities before giving the operation its blessing. The task of the commandos was to provide it.
Today the site near Dayr az-Zawr lies in ruins after it was pounded by Israeli F15Is on September 6. Before the Israelis issued the order to strike, the commandos had secretly seized samples of nuclear material and taken them back into Israel for examination by scientists, the sources say. A laboratory confirmed that the unspecified material was North Korean in origin. America approved an attack.
So tell me. Is Iran that much more smart? Is Syria (and Iraq) that much more stupid?
A reader inside Myanmar is keeping me posted on what’s going on in that country as I’ve been attempting to return the favor by forwarding stories published outside the country. This morning I got an email containing both a personal note for family and friends and a report from the government in control of the country.
From the personal note:
We’re not sure what’s going to happen this weekend, after a week of protests by thousands of Buddhist monks. We’re gearing up for possible nation-wide protests. It’s so exciting to be here during the first, major, organized resistance in two decades. It’s a bit scary, too. The embassy has put us on high alert, and we are prepared for evacuation, though I doubt it will come to that.
Please keep us all in your prayers: this nation suffers so. The monks have asked us not to protest with them, but thousands have gathered to cheer and clap.
And then there’s this from The New Light Of Myanmar:
Nay Pyi Taw, 18 September
Destructive elements from inside and outside the nation have been inciting instigation since 19 August with the intention of stirring up unrest as in 1988 to grab power through short cut and to make manipulations at will. Internal and external saboteurs and foreign radio stations have been airing exaggerated news reports on the protests, trying to instigate the public and launching propaganda campaigns and making attempts to mislead the people by holding interviews with some NLD members and the so-called 88 generation students.
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Spiritual Judasim by David Ariel.
We also sang the songs what we had learned along the way as we joined the chorus of each new civilization that we entered. In each land, we learned to harmonize the songs of the past with the new melodies that we learned. We taught the songs of other choruses with which we were familiar to the new audiences that we encountered in our travels. Out of this synthesis came new Jewish melodies that were often different from those that have been sung before. But we always returned to the melody. As a popular Hebrew folk song says: “Time advances, the year passes, but the melody lives on forever…” From the essay: “The Unfinished Symphony,” pp 257-9
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