Adding to the list of things I probably shouldn't do just because they amuse me

Afghans, it seems, have their own slavish adherence to regulations, at least in terms of religion.  The call to stick your ass in the air came about 20 minutes early today.  I was in my office at the Border Police headquarters I have several offices, this one is where I work from to ensure that our mentorship and partnership with these WOGs goes well) but that's a whole 'nother ball of wax.

Anyway, there's a PA system in my office.  Lots of lights and buttons.  May as well put a "wet paint" sign on it too--I'm going to play with it.  I pushed a couple buttons, and the pre-recorded call to prayer starts up.  I figured it wouldn't be a big deal, people would check their watches and realize the error.
 
Allah is never off time, it seems.  About 20 seconds into the recording (while I was pushing buttons, again, to make it stop) the mosques around the Headquarters started playing the call to prayer.  All the Afghans started filing out of offices and barracks to go pray. 

I asked one of the terps about this--he said that when the prayer call is heard, you go pray, period.  Not everyone has a watch or can tell time, but everyone can hear the call to Allah.  And if a call is heard by a mosque, they will make their call and the others will follow.  Then they will adjust their clocks, so the next call is sounded at a set time from the last call.

So, I may have figured out a way to establish Chucks Daylight Savings Time.  Just adjust by a couple minutes every day, and soon, I can get Afghanistan off the weird 30-minute time shift (Afghan Time is +30 minutes to everywhere else in the time zone) and eventually have them on Eastern Standard Time.  Sure, their prayers would all be in the middle of the night, but Allah wants what Allah wants.

--Chuck

I also have an app on my Ipod that plays a high-pitched beep that I can't hear.  It's exactly in the frequency range I lost when shit went all explodey a few years back. The noise is very hard to pin down location/source, and since I like to keep the ipod in my pocket, and move around a lot, it is even harder for people to know where the noise comes from.  Right outside my plywood wall here at the Border Police, there is a break room for the Afghans.  There is a TV in there, blaring Taliban MTV 24-7. 

Remember the PA system?  Guess what?  I expect that by the end of the month people will either go insane or start getting their ears checked.

It's going to be a long deployment

I started my Wednesday by having an Afghan colonel tell me that the coalition side--my side--of our combined US-AFG TOC wasn't working hard and wasn't doing it's job.  My side has four senior NCO's, a commo NCO, two analysts, three LTs, six soldiers and me doing 24/7 operations, including battle tracking the entire Brigade Area of Operations.  His side--a collection of rheumy-eyed fat afghan lieutenant colonels, take turns (one at a time for two to three hours) sitting in a chair and sleeping when they aren't talking on their cell phones.

I had to be pulled out of the combined TOC after I used "fuck-stick" "slap-nuts" and "If you know so much, how come Afghanistan isn't occupying FOBs in The US?" in one long tirade that (thankfully, in retrospect) wasn't translated.

I'll eat a lot of shit for the cause, but I won't be talked down to, or ever let my soldiers be talked down to, by some tin-pot wannabe who only moved out of his mud hut last week.

--Chuck

Mother of the Year

On November 15th, Jennifer Fox was kicked in the stomach and pepper-sprayed by the Seattle Police. She was three months pregnant.

This is obviously police brutality, plain and simple.  Why, I bet those Seattle cops purposely targeted the pregnant women in that crowd of peaceful demonstrators who were just chanting in their drum circle about reasons why bathing is bourgeois.  Those cops obviously knew she was pregnant, too, as every woman shows a huge belly at three months--after all, at that point, the baby "is the size of a small apple and is fully formed. She has grown from 1 to 3 inches and weighs about 1 ½ ounces by month end." (1)

Let's be perfectly clear--after my morning coffee and smoke, I've been known to--no, I don't want to go there.  Point is, I know it's there at that point, and it doesn't show.  Just like I knew it was there before the rockets started falling.  At the point in the pregnancy that Jennifer Fox was, she knew it was there, too.

So, if we take the facts at face value, Jennifer Fox knew she was pregnant, the police didn't.  Jennifer Fox wasn't an innocent bystander, she'd been a) warned b) told to disperse and c) threatened with the use of pepper spray.  Knowing fully that she was risking the well being of her unborn child, she opted to stay where she was and continue her unlawful behavior.

This isn't police brutality--it's reckless endangerment bordering on child neglect.  She should be locked up where she can incubate the fetus without further endangering it, then once the baby is brought to term, the child should be taken and place up for adoption.  Ms. Fox should then be released from incarceration, and on her way out the door, someone should say 'Oh, just one more thing..." and when she turns around, shoot her in the face with pepper spray and kick her in the belly again.

If anyone knows of an address where Ms. Fox can be reached to send care packages and notes of sympathy, I'd appreciate it.  I'll have gallons of Tabasco, Sriracha, Franks, and this delivered.

--Chuck

One less hairball maker

In the world of Top Gun, it's Goose who dies too young. Kittehs watch movies, too. And in the Ziegenfuss household in Hawaii, they got the story backwards. In Top Gun: Hawaii, it's Maverick who dies too young, as Carren had to send him to Piddler's Green.

Read the rest, and thanks:
http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2011/11/from_one_paradi.html


--Chuck

The grinch who stole Veterans Day

The grinch who stole Veterans Day

By David Colthart November 17, 2011 at 7:37 pm  

When Veterans Day rolls around, as it did last week, many Americans take the opportunity to show their gratitude, if only by saying "thanks" to the veterans serving our country.

Michael Avery, professor of law at Suffolk University in Boston, however, is above such "irrational sympathy" and chose instead to use the occasion as a platform for his extreme political views.

Responding to a care package drive at the University, Avery wrote an e-mail saying:

"I think it is shameful that it is perceived as legitimate to solicit in an academic institution for support for men and women who have gone overseas to kill other human beings.

"I understand that there is a residual sympathy for service members, perhaps engendered by support for troops in World War II, or perhaps from when there was a draft and people with few resources to resist were involuntarily sent to battle. That sympathy is not particularly rational in today's world, however."

Whatever his view on America's current war footing, or on war in general, Avery embarrasses himself and Suffolk University by moralizing about care packages; as if a mother sending her son fresh socks in Afghanistan amounts to the aiding and abetting of a killer.

I served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an enlisted machine gunner for four years before getting out and pursuing a bachelor's degree here at ASU.

Care packages and letters helped keep my friends and me sane while on deployment. They reminded us that a real life would still be here waiting for us when we got back home.

I've never forgotten the older woman from Maine, a complete stranger, who sent me the sweetest, most sincere letters while I was in Iraq. She would tell me that she was thinking of me, and share endearing stories about retired life with her husband in their foggy neighborhood by the sea.

Then there was the class of elementary school children in Texas who drew pictures and wrote heartwarming messages of support, which their teacher then compiled and sent to me while we were deployed to South East Asia.

Avery can sit in his ivory tower and treat every issue as an intellectual exercise if he wants, but he could really learn a lot from my pen-pal in Maine and those schoolchildren in Texas, all of whom realize that soldiers are people, not abstract political entities.

Perhaps spending some time with people in the military would convince Avery that they are, in fact, worthy of the Twinkies and toothpaste that cause him so much concern.

It certainly made a big impression on class act Justin Timberlake who attended the 236th Marine Corps Birthday Ball with Cpl. Kelsey DeSantis last weekend after accepting the 23-year old fan's YouTube invitation to the event several months ago.

On his blog at JustinTimberlake.com, he called it "an event that turned out to be one of the most moving evenings I've ever had…"

"It hit me all of a sudden that these were the type of people that look after us and our freedom … Humble, concerned for others before themselves … This was the type of person our Marine Corps was building. I was really blown away," Timberlake wrote.

Feeling a special love and kinship for your fellow countrymen might be a vice to academics like Avery, but for the rest of us, there's soldiersangels.org, where you can help send a care package to somebody standing on the front lines this very moment.

--Chuck

Day Brightened

--Chuck

Beyond the Back of Beyond

This is an OP I visited out Beyond the Back of Beyond.  If I were to turn around, I could literally have thrown rocks at Pakistan.

 

For what it's worth, I did include the moon in the picture, but I screwed up and actually focused the image... so I guess I'll never be as great a war photographer as Mike Yawn.

 

--Chuck

Survivability

These vehicles are designed to give their lives so our soldiers don't.

Big IED, everyone walked away.

--Chuck

Pakistan, as seen from FOB Back of Beyond

 

The snow capped mountain in the background is the land where they hide bin Laden, support terrorism, and do really shitty tech support.  They also make shitty electronics.
--Chuck

Afhganistan Helicopter Porn

This is one of the USAF helicopters from the famed Pedros.  Pedros do C/SAR--Combat Search and Rescue.  Their only medic-trained personnel are the PJs that travel with them.  Their primary mission is to recover downed pilots, not do MEDEVAC.  Hence, the guns and not the big red plus signs.  You'd think a writer with more combat experience in Afghanistan than Alexander the Great would realize that.

Note to self: If your body says poop, it may be the hand of god.

Back from the Back of Beyond--A funny thing happened on the way to the crapper

 

Funny story... I was saved today by my regular diet of caffiene and nicotine--the breakfast of champions.  (Names of places have been changed to protect mostly me.)

 

Lemme 'splain.  For the last week I've not been at my regular Forward Operating Base (FOB Smells Like Ass.) Instead, I've been high up in the mountains, a stone's throw from Pakistan, at FOB Back of Beyond.  We are building Joint US/Afghan Army/Afghan Border Patrol Outposts.  (Like the US Border patrol, but with better guns and marginally more effective.) This OP, OP Beyond the Back Of Beyond is so high up in the mountains and so far from, well, everything, that we are building it by bringing everything in by helicopter.  It looks a lot like one of the montain outposts in Lord Of The Rings.

 

So...

I had a helicopter scheduled to take me back to FOB Smells Like Ass (not it's real name) at 0930.  At 0900, I was leaving the Back of Beyond Tactical Operations Center to go get my gear and go to the LZ.  As I walked out of the TOC, my morning coffee and cigarette hit, and I figured I'd best go drop the afghanis off at the pool before I got my gear on. 

As I was taking the Browns to the Superbowl, I heard something go all 'splodey... and it wasn't me!  It was--close, but generally from the area we usually have outgoing...

Then I realized there was no PA System (we call it the big voice) call to tell people it was outgoing.

Oh, shit.  (No pun intended.)

I had one thought and one thought only--"I don't want to die on the shitter."

I finished up, and by the time I left the latrine, the rockets had stopped falling.  I stopped by the TOC, to really just check in and see what was going on, watched them call in air strikes on the point of origin, and then walked back to the building I am staying in. 

All eight rounds landed between where I was when I decided to go shit and where I was bunking. 

My life was likely saved by the fact that my breakfast is usually coffee and nicotine.  Funny how life works.  One round landed on the barracks building right next to mine.  Nobody was killed, some were hurt, none too badly.  Could've been a lot worse.

 

Generally, when you start your day by taking indirect fire, it gets better after that.

--Chuck

Happy Veteran's day

From: Rosenbaum, Richard A. (CEO)
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 9:00 AM
To: USAtty; USStaff
Subject: Veterans Day Message
It is time to share below message on this important day. But before you look at it, please join me in congratulating Marissa Banez, a litigation associate in our New York office, for a great result this week in a pro bono case. The case has special significance today -- Veteran's Day -- because our client is an injured veteran for whom we have now successfully secured health benefits.
In 1962, our client sustained a serious knee injury while serving as a Marine in Vietnam. In 2008, without legal counsel, he filed for an increase in his service-related benefits because his injury -- getting worse with every passing year -- rendered him unable to stand or walk for any length of time. In connection with his claim (brought in a VA administrative proceeding) the VA did not obtain all of his medical records and failed to provide the medical examiner with his claims folder.
In 2010, the VA denied our client's benefits claim based on a blatantly incomplete record.
Marissa took on the appeal and wrote a strong brief demonstrating that the VA was violating clear authority in denying our client's claim. After receipt of our brief counsel for the VA conceded we were right and agreed then and there to remand the case for further proceedings.
With all the talk about deficits, occupy this or that, etc, WE CANNOT FORGET OUR VETERANS. They have put it all on the line for our freedom and do so every day, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. They are not protesting for TV cameras, they are fighting, being injured and dying in places you and I do not see every single day for OUR FREEDOM. A recent Congressional report tracking a rise in poverty indicates that among our vets between the ages of 18 and 24, a whopping 21% live in poverty! Yet they have to fight for their benefits to which they are entitled, as in this case.
I don't send this as a political statement. I send this to a law firm, OUR law firm, that I well know is full of people who really do care about each other and our country. I want to make the point to you that, without pro bono help, veterans often don't have the resources to enforce their rights. If Marissa had not taken this on, our client would not have been able to re-open his case, despite the incontrovertible evidence that his symptoms have increased such that he can barely stand or walk unassisted because he fought for our country. YOUR involvement in these cases on a pro bono basis is not simply a good thing but is essential to due process and equal access to justice for those to whom we owe so much.
So thanks and congratulations, Marissa, and here is this year's message:
 
It may only be one day each year on the calendar, but to all of the brave men and women who have served and are currently serving our country in the name of freedom, we honor your selfless courage and unimaginable strength EVERY day.
Words cannot express our gratitude for your profound heroism and our sincere hope for your safe returns home.
 
Happy Veterans Day.

 

--Chuck
عدنا الى الوطن لبلدنا ، الماعز يمكنك برغي

Bowe Berghdahl

Asking that whenever you mention those serving, PLEASE specifically do a 'shoutout' or 'callout' to Bowe Bergdahl, the only POW (actually, 'persons missing assumed held' if you want to get technical about it) that we have.  SGT Bergdahl needs the 'support'.  There is another, SGT Altaie, but his 'condition' is not presumed to be that of Bowe's.  Can't say much more than that.

As for Bowe, let me say that, there is a SPECIFIC reason for this going out. VERY VERY SPECIFIC.

--Chuck

Thanks, google:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/bringing-very-best-of-what-we-do-to.html

Bringing the very best of what we do to the veteran community

11/11/2011 06:00:00 AM

We believe that technology can be a force for good; one that builds and binds community. As a Googler, my proudest moments are when we take that technology and put it in the hands of people who can use it to communicate, collaborate, build and explore.

Today, on Veterans Day, I am proud to share a few Google tools and platforms for the military veteran community. They can be accessed on our website, Google for Veterans and Families, which was created by veterans and their family and friends, who work at Google. This single interface brings together Google products and platforms for servicemembers and their families. We believe it will be useful to all veterans, whether still in the service, transitioning out, or on a new path in their civilian lives. Here are some examples of what you'll find on the site:

• VetConnect - This tool helps servicemembers connect, communicate and share their experiences with others who have served using the Google+ platform.
• Google Veterans Channel - A YouTube channel for discussion about military service for veterans, their families and the public. Veterans can share their experiences with each other as well as with civilians to help shed light on the importance and complexity of service. If you have not served, this is a great place to offer your thanks by uploading a tribute video.
• Resume Builder powered by Google Docs - We found that Docs can be a particularly helpful tool to transitioning servicemembers seeking employment. Resume Builder generates an auto-formatted resume that can be easily edited, saved and downloaded to share with potential employers.
• Tour Builder powered by Google Earth (coming soon). A new way to tell your military story. Today, you can view some sample "tours"— 3D maps of veterans' service histories, complete with photos and videos. Stay tuned for more details and updates on the Google Lat Long Blog.

It's been a proud month for those of us here at Google who are veterans or family of veterans.

In October, 100 Googlers visited the Soldier and Family Assistance Center at West Point to conduct resume writing workshops for members of the Warrior Transition Unit. And, just two weeks ago, we traveled to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to teach wounded, ill and injured servicemembers how to use Google tools to stay in touch with their loved ones while in recovery.

Finally, this week, we introduced the Veterans Job Bank in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Veterans Job Bank is a customized job search engine in the National Resource Directory (NRD), which is powered by Google Custom Search technology and crawls the web for JobPosting markup from Schema.org to identify veteran-committed job openings.

Even playing a small part to serve those who have served has been an honor.

Posted by Carrie Laureno, Audience Evangelist and Founder, Google Veterans Network

--Chuck

 

Happy Veteran's Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyN2jhWjeVw
--Chuck

War Porn: How Mike Yon seeks to profit on the bodies of dying Soldiers

I've generally divorced myself from any business having to do with Mike Yon, because I personally believe he is a douchebag, and worse, someone who holds himself up as a master of all things military, although he was only in the Army briefly, and since then has spent lots of time floating between Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bangkok.  He wears his time spent in combat zones, often being protected by the very troops whose leaders he openly mocks and scorns, as some weird badge--as if his proximity to combat has any meaning.  I used to live next door to an ice cream parlor, but that doesn't make me Ben and Jerry's.  I've spent months in and out of hospitals had (at last count 39, or was it 40?) but I'm no surgeon.  Mike is to military knowledge what the Oklahoma Earthquake is to geoscience--a curiosity.

 

So now, after being none too welcome in Afghanistan--seems word of his being a diva (more ostentatious than Kim Zolciak) is spreading--he's fucked off back to the land of sex tourism, ladyboys, and cheap heroin--I wonder if he'll now claim to be an expert on those matters (as I am sure he has more experience with them than most.)

 

But just being told to go away wasn't enough for Mike, I guess his tip jar didn't get as many hits after he started trying to lance the windmill dragons, claiming he was afraid for his life because a Master Sergeant wrote something mean about him, and then claimed that this Master Sergeant sent a Captain and another NCO to threaten and assault him... which I must admit, makes that Master Sergeant powerful indeed, to order a higher ranking officer to commit a felony.  It doesn't pass the smell test, and neither does Mikey. 

 

Mikey found a new ox to gore--the Medevac process and whether or not we (the US) should arm our medevac helicopters.  Mikey believes we should.  He believes that would mean helicopters can magically fly faster if they are armed, and that the HH-60, the Army's flying ambulance, could fight its way to the casualties it is picking up.  Mikey even thinks that displaying the red cross on medical helicopters is stupid, because it gives the enemy an aiming point.  Points that are as DOA as Cory Smoot at a border crossing.  Get off the bus with Flattus Maximus Mike, your career is dead.

 

I'm not going to address those topics, because they are all dumb... just like mike.

 

What got mikey started down this path was that a soldier near him was gravely injured, and he watched that soldier die, waiting for Medevac. Mikey thinks it took too long for the helicopter to get there (in fact, according to official records, it got there faster than the average flight.)  But facts don't matter to mikey.  He knows what he knows and isn't afraid to say it.  Mikey kept writing about the incompetence of the medevac crews--some of the bravest pilots, no--some of the bravest people you'll ever meet.  Those same people who've saved my life.  He then wrote about the incompetence of the headquarters that assigns medevac flights and prioritizes missions, without ever setting foot in their HQ.

 

Then, after being none to politely told to "fuck off" by everyone in Afghanistan wearing a uniform and having any awareness, Mikey went back to the land of child molestation for fun and profit and continued beating his drum.  No one was paying attention to him (which is worse than death to someone who behaves like a malignant narcissist) so he's outdone himself in the race to be the person voted "better to have been smothered in his crib."  While the soldier he was so worried about, so enraged about, lay dying, mike did everything he could to help.  He used the advanced medical training he learned in the special forces to try to save the soldier, he used his vast understanding of the tactical and strategic situation in Afghanistan to help assess the best way to get medevac flights in, he single-handedly secured the LZ.

 

No, he did none of those things.  What he did was grab his camera, and shoot some war porn.  He stood there, idly, watching this soldier die, and didn't do anything, not one positive thing, to help.  Now he claims that releasing this video will... fuck, I don't know.  I don't care what his reasons are, nor will I link to him or to them.  His decision to take that video, let alone release it, has clearly illustrated to all decent people the exact nature of his character and being.

 

It. Doesn't. Matter. Why.

 

There is no mitigating circumstance, no extenuating factor which excuses this.  He tried making an argument about arming medevacs, and how the process was broken, and was summarily slapped down by the Public Affairs Office--with the actual facts of the mission, which were far different from his little viewfinder.  He was made personal non-grata by every decent unit in Afghanistan.  He was ridiculed and punked by the Special Forces community.  He was then, worst thing for him, ignored.

 

So he releases the video of a dying soldier, an area which so far has, with few exceptions, been the sole domain of the Taliban.  Well Mike, you wanted attention, you got it, here's mine.

 

I truly hope I see you in a combat zone.  I hope you are wounded, in the most painful way possible.  I hope I am there to watch, and I pray, that if the planets should ever align on such a glorious day, that I will not only have the means to call you a medevac, but that I will have the means to record your every dying gasp as you watch.  I will help you, I won't hurt you, but I will allow everyone to watch you die in agony, I'll post that video to make a point.  Because that is how you've chosen to sow your seeds, so shall you (hopefully) reap it.

 

That isn't a threat, don't feel ascared, mikey.  Just don't come back.

 

--Chuck

Mail Call

You know it's going to be a good day when you get mail.

 

When you get a package, it's a great day.

 

When you get seven packages, all from http://www.Soldiersangels.org, your week got, if you'll pardon the Vulgate vernacular, a buttload better. 

These packages included Girl Scout cookies, fleece blankets, soccer and basket balls, and SA Sweatshirts--which will be given to the wounded before they are medevaced, because it gets chilly, trust me on that--and I pray we have just as many sweatshirts now as we do when we leave.

 

One of the things in my (and I say my, but this stuff is going to a combination of US Soldiers and Afghan kids) was coffee.  An Army may move on it's stomach, but we run on coffee.

 

SoldiersAngels sent us 120 pounds of coffee, which originated from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf company.  These bags of coffee are special... each one has a hand-written note from the donor.  The one I grabbed says "The person holding this coffee is amazing and greatly appreciated and loved by all of us in San Diego.  Thank you for all you do for me and my loved ones."

 

If you'd like to send a note of thanks to the good folks at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, click here.  If you'd like to donate to, or find ways that you can help Soldiers Angels continue it's mission of making the days of our deployed, wounded, and returning servicemembers better, visit www.soldiersangels,org.

 

--Chuck
Charles W. Ziegenfuss
Oderint dum metuant
Let them hate us, so long as they fear us
Μολὼν λάβε--come and get it
عدنا الى الوطن لبلدنا ، الماعز يمكنك برغي

Stashe Bash

 

Soldiers' Angels and supporter Ranger Up proudly announce StacheBash, an effort drawing together stars and fans from the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) to competitively show their support for the troops by growing a mustache while encouraging people to donate to Soldiers' Angels and Hire Heroes USA.

From now until the MMA fight on 10 December 2011, Soldiers' Angels is asking every MMA fighter, celebrity, or organization that wants to make a fundamental difference in the lives of our men and women serving abroad to "Mustache Up" and sign up for a team.  Each team competes against the others to raise as many donations for the troops as possible (all donations are tax deductible and will go through Soldiers' Angels accounts).

The goal is that on December 10 when Jon Bones Jones faces Lyoto Machida, the cage is full of fantastic facial hair, showcasing amazing support for our men and women in uniform.

Hire Heroes USA and Soldiers' Angels have partnered in this project to help create a continuum of support for veterans—Soldiers' Angels takes care of America's heroes when they're deployed, supports their healing when they return, and then connects them with Hire Heroes to get them the best possible start on a civilian career.

StacheBash was inspired in part by Movember, a developing international drive for men to grow mustaches during November to raise funds and awareness for men's health issues.  As of November 4, Twenty-six stars have formed seven competing teams with 'StacheBash.  To encourage your favorite MMA fighter or related organization to form a team, point them to the StacheBash website.

To donate in the name of a StacheBash team, click a team profile and scroll down.

--Chuck

How to Turn Your Gift into a Laptop for a wounded hero

How to Turn Your Gift into a Laptop
11/01/11

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To honor America's veterans and support Project Valour-IT, Soldiers'
Angels is holding an eBay auction on Veterans Day Weekend and your
donations are needed to make it happen!

From patriotic to practical and beyond, your gift will help a
severely-wounded hero receive an adaptive laptop from Soldiers'
Angels. We need to move quickly, but Angels have an amazing way of
coming through under pressure!

To submit your item for auction or ask any questions, email
beths@soldiersangels.org with subject line "Auction." Be sure to
include ALL of the following in your email:

Quality photos of the item you are donating for auction
Full description of the item, appropriate for posting on eBay

The minimum amount for which you want your item to sell

For more info:
http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=917&cntnt01returnid=15

--Chuck

Matt Goss, Ceaser's Palace, and Bouhammer.com join forces for our Veterans

Matt Goss, Ceaser's Palace, and Bouhammer.com join forces for our Veterans
British singing sensation Matt Goss, in conjunction with Bouhammer's
Military Blog is celebrating Veterans and honoring those who serve
with complimentary tickets to his show Friday, Nov. 11 and Saturday,
Nov. 12 in the Gossy Room at Caesars Palace.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov 05, 2011 - LAS VEGAS (Nov. 05, 2011) –
British singing sensation Matt Goss, in conjunction with Bouhammer's
Afghan and Military Blog (http://www.bouhammer.com), is celebrating
Veterans and honoring those who serve with complimentary tickets to
his show Friday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 12 in the Gossy Room at
Caesars Palace.

"It's important to raise awareness of the heroic acts these Veterans
perform on a daily basis," said Goss. "I'm honored to give this group
a much deserved, enjoyable night out."

Invited Veterans will receive complimentary entrance to the show for
themselves and a guest, dinner and a meet and greet opportunity with
Goss prior to the show.

For more info, or to attend, go visit Bouhammer.com:
http://www.bouhammer.com/2011/11/matt-goss-ceasers-casino-group-and-bouhammer-team-up-for-veterans/

--
--Chuck

Trick or Tr-Eid

Eid is a muslim holiday (or excuse for the 99% of the population here to somehow be less productive.)

Eid celebrates Mohammed's (SBUH) bastardization of the story of Abraham (Ibrahim) when he was told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac.

In the Old Testament,   Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son up as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah.  Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, he was prevented by an angel, and given on that spot a ram which he sacrificed in place of his son.

In the islamic plagiarization, Ibrahim is commanded by Allah to kill his son, (and I think this is the critical difference) and Ibrahim blindfolded himself, because he could not watch himself kill his son. Allah pretended he was Chris Angel, and when Ibrahim removed the blindfold, his son had been replaced by a sheep.

 

This story does, (in my opinion) show a very intersting facet of the Muslim mind--I will do horrible things that god commands of me, but I will not recognize that I do them (i.e. take ownership of my actions) and Allah will make everything okay in the end.  In the Judeo-Christian story, Abraham still does as God commands, but sans blindfold--he is accepting responsibility for his actions--for his choice to follow the will of God.  God's angel stays his hand, and provides a nearby ram for slaughter. 

 

Therein lies one of the biggest problems--My actions are guided by Allah, I have no control and will not take responsibility, and Allah will make it all okay.

 

There is no personal responsibility, there is no accountability, there is no free will.  (Islam, after all, means "Submission.")

 

Muslims are slaves to a Flying Spaghetti Monster.

--Chuck

Music for the day

Music playlist for today (I should run the Voice of America in Afghanistan)

Can you tell I'm prepping to go outside the wire again?

1. Let the bodies hit the floor--Drowning pool
2. Feuer Frei--Rammstein
3. Millionaire--Queens of the stone age
4. Sticks and Stones--Alien Ant Farm
5. Mother--Danzig
6. Memory Remains--Metallica
7. Viva Las Vegas--Dead Kennedys
8. Keep Away--Godsmack
9. Shame--Stabbing Westward
10. Somebody to Shove--Soul Asylum
11. This is not--Static X
12. I alone--Live
13. Devil's Dance Floor--Flogging Molly
14. The New American Way--Dropkick Murphys
15. Damnn it Feels good to be a gangsta--Ghetto Boys
16. Nemesis--Shriekback
17. Ace Of Spades--Motörhead

Not a good day to piss me off.

--
--Chuck
Charles W. Ziegenfuss
Oderint dum metuant
Let them hate us, so long as they fear us
Μολὼν λάβε--come and get it
عدنا الى الوطن لبلدنا ، الماعز يمكنك برغي

Thought of the day

The Army is the only organization in the world that will use three or
more colors on a slide to describe a binary solution set.

--Chuck
Charles W. Ziegenfuss
Oderint dum metuant
Let them hate us, so long as they fear us
Μολὼν λάβε--come and get it
عدنا الى الوطن لبلدنا ، الماعز يمكنك برغي

Shit just got real

Ninjas.  In Afghanistan.

 

 

Game on.

--Chuck

About taxis in Afghanistan

Via Facebook  (with fisking by Chuck in italics):

Tim Lynch: It's still easy to take taxi around Kabul and it has never been safe to pack fobbits into Rhinos and drive them anywhere.

A rhino is what I rode around in yesterday,very armored and FAR, Far safer than a taxi.  

Nothing will protect you from a big enough blast (ask the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki about that.)

They wouldn't have been stuck in traffic if ISAF had not closed half the roads in Kabul (to protect their compounds) forcing all the traffic on 2 main east/west routes.

Closing routes canalizes the enemy as well as friendly forces. You can't be everywhere at all times, so limiting enemy axis of approach is critical to restricting his freedom of maneuver.

We could have saved billions and many lives by not spending 2 billion a week on a massive force protection system that has 6758 points of failure.

No force protection (or defense) is 100% effective. A determined enemy will breach it. The larger the area to secure, the more points of failure. Force protection can only limit the effectiveness of an attack or slow the frequency/ease with which the enemy attacks.

The Fobbits should ride to the airport in cabs like all the other westerners - it's safer, cheaper by millions, and if one is hit you don't lose so many people.

The number of attacks, as well as kidnappings, would increase. Smaller IEDs would kill more people in individual attacks. Rule #1 with IEDs is YOU HAVE TO SURVIVE THE BLAST. Sure, the number of US troops killed/maimed in the attacks would be smaller, which is acceptable--unless that person is you.

Armored vehicles do not protect people - people protect people and if you have zero people outside the wire, inside the community and looking out for your interests this is what happens. And there will be more, lots more, because the military refuses to understand the crippling effects of force protection dominance over all other things when it comes to evaluating commanders.

If Armored vehicles don't protect people, why do we keep making them? Could it be that the armored vehicles actually do protect people? By your logic, we shouldn't wear body armor, either. My lonely right nut disagrees with your assessment.

And, as has been noted for the past 8 years, the American intelligence agencies have no human intelligence capability at all. None. Just the folks who walk into the Fobs on their own and who knows what their agenda is?

And Fire doesn't melt steel, either. If we've no HUMINT capability, how did we find bin Laden?