Good Tuesday
Some very good news to start today's entry. My Uncle Buddy has gone home today after undergoing heart bypass surgery last Wednesday. Apparently everything went well and he's doing fine!
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Good Advice, But Can It Be Done?
Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Slate and Vanity Fair, and a supporter of the Liberation of Iraq. On the topic of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, he makes this very valid point...
One of two things must necessarily be true. Either these goons were acting on someone's authority, in which case there is a layer of mid- to high-level people who think that they are not bound by the laws and codes and standing orders. Or they were acting on their own authority, in which case they are the equivalent of mutineers, deserters, or traitors in the field. This is why one asks wistfully if there is no provision in the procedures of military justice for them to be taken out and shot.
Hand to Hand
"One of his friends was dead, 12 others lay wounded and the four soldiers still left standing were surrounded and out of ammunition," the Associated Press reports from Najaf, Iraq:
So Salvadoran Cpl. Samuel Toloza said a prayer, whipped out his knife and charged the Iraqi gunmen.El Salvador is part of what John Kerry calls the "fraudulent coalition."
In one of the only known instances of hand-to-hand combat in the Iraq conflict, Cpl. Toloza stabbed several attackers swarming around a comrade. The stunned assailants backed away momentarily, just as a relief column came to the unit's rescue.
"We never considered surrender. I was trained to fight until the end," said the 25-year-old corporal, one of 380 soldiers from El Salvador whose heroism is being cited just as other members of the multinational force in Iraq are facing criticism.
Kerry's Purple Heart Doctor Speaks Out
Speaking of JFKerry, the National Review has located a doctor who treated Kerry for one of his purple heart "wounds". It makes for very interesting reading. Kerry claimed his boat had come under enemy fire. His shipmates said it never happened. Kerry's superficial scratch was "covered with a bandaid."
I Love A Good Quote
Blogress Ana Marie Cox, who goes by the moniker Wonkette, wrote:
About ten or so middle-aged folks (really!) and a youngster or two, interrupted Rumsfeld's Senate testimony for about 3 minutes. Chants of "Fire Rumsfeld! Fire Rumsfeld! Guess the New York Times editorial board had the day off."
Something A Little Disturbing
Now that the spring thaw has gotten into full swing in Alaska, they can finally get around to burying those who died sometime during the past winter. With temperatures in the Alaskan interior reaching 40-below during the winter, the ground becomes too hard to dig. This is one side of life in the great white north I didn't need to know about.
What A Legacy For Ol' Bill
A former pastor accused of sexually assaulting a church member denied wrongdoing Thursday, telling jurors he and the woman had a consensual affair that could be described as "a Bill Clinton thing."
