Saturday, April 30, 2011

TIGER TIGER



TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?


- William Blake. 1757-1827



Today's Bird HERE


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Friday, April 29, 2011

WHY HARRY POTTER SHOULD HAVE CARRIED AN M1911

I am not a Potter fan but I have kids so I have been exposed to it . . . I even knew a guy who wrote a master's thesis on the Harry Potter phenomena . . .

. . . this latest wizard insanity comes from an Internet personality known to us only as . . .
"Whind_Soull" -


Ok, this has been driving me crazy for seven movies now, and I know you're going to roll your eyes, but hear me out: Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.

Here's why:

Think about how quickly the entire WWWIII (Wizarding-World War III) would have ended if all of the good guys had simply armed up with good ol' American hot lead.


Basilisk? Let's see how tough it is when you shoot it with a .470 Nitro Express.


Worried about its Medusa-gaze? Wear night vision goggles. The image is light-amplified and re-transmitted to your eyes. You aren't looking at it - you're looking at a picture of it.

Imagine how epic the first movie would be if Harry had put a breaching charge on the bathroom wall, flash-banged the hole, and then went in wearing NVGs and a Kevlar-weave stab-vest, carrying a SPAS-12.




And have you noticed that only Europe seems to a problem with Deatheaters? Maybe it's because Americans have spent the last 200 years shooting deer, playing GTA: Vice City, and keeping an eye out for black helicopters over their compounds. Meanwhile, Brits have been cutting their steaks with spoons. Remember: gun-control means that Voldemort wins. God made wizards and God made muggles, but Samuel Colt made them equal.




Now I know what you're going to say: "But a wizard could just disarm someone with a gun!" Yeah, well they can also disarm someone with a wand (as they do many times throughout the books/movies). But which is faster: saying a spell or pulling a trigger?

Avada Kedavra, meet Avtomat Kalashnikova.

Imagine Harry out in the woods, wearing his invisibility cloak, carrying a .50 cal Barrett, turning Deatheaters into pink mist, scratching a lightning bolt into his rifle stock for each kill.




I don't think Madam Pomfrey has any spells that can scrape your brains off of the trees and put you back together after something like that. Voldemort's wand may be 13.5 inches with a Phoenix-feather core, but Harry's would be 0.50 inches with a tungsten core. Let's see Voldy wave his at 3,000 feet per second. Better hope you have some Essence of Dittany for that sucking chest wound.

I can see it now . . . Voldemort roaring with evil laughter and boasting to Harry that he can't be killed, since he is protected by seven Horcruxes, only to have Harry give a crooked grin, flick his cigarette butt away, and deliver what would easily be the best one-liner in the entire series:

"Well then I guess it's a good thing my 1911 holds 7+1."




And that is why Harry Potter should have carried a 1911.






Today's Bird HERE




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Thursday, April 28, 2011

SERIOUSLY?




On The Obama Birth Certificate

The Libyan military adventure putters along inconclusively as a tent-dwelling desert nomad thumbs his nose at the world's lone Superpower . . . we have reached the point predicted by de Tocqueville's where the amount of government largess doled out to the non-producers exceeds the amount of revenues taken in from those who produce . . . and reverse racism has gone from Justice Department tolerating militant, club-wielding Black Panther goons patrolling polling places to accepting as commonplace race-inspired "beatdowns" at popular fast-food restaurants . . .

. . . and I'm supposed to take this birth certificate sideshow SERIOUSLY ? ? ?

The truth be told, whether we admit it or not - we are ALL intrigued by this affair - and for what it's worth this latest scrap of paper does not pass my smell test. It took Donald Trump to get this far . . . brace yourselves for more B.S. to come.

For the record I have always said it doesn't matter whether Obama was born in Hawaii, Africa, or on the moon - he was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and as such he is legally President of the United States . . .




. . . although I prefer to refer to him and the First Klingon as "the current occupiers of the Whitehouse".

Hear me now: I am not now nor have I ever been a "birther" - those guys are in the same league as the tinfoil hat brigade and the 9-11 conspiracy nutjobs, and I am not of that.

You have to admit however that “African” verbiage on the birth certificate - regarding Obama's father's race - is unorthodox. I remember they didn't even start using “Afro-American” until late 60s / early 70s.

On the other hand, the odds that Obama's mother got on a plane in her third trimester and did what would have been in 1961 a near 24-hour journey to a VERY foreign land is right up there with the moon landing was actually filmed in a hanger in Area 51 a la Capricorn One and Onassis arranged both the Kennedy assassinations as bizarre Hellenic crimes of passion stemming out of a four-way love triangle with Jackie in the middle.






The whole argument that there's a difference between native-born and "natural born" is a DEMOCRATIC talking point from the election of 1916, when they tried to argue that Charles Evans Hughes was not eligible to be president because his father was born in Britain. BTW, nobody ever raises this objection about presidential candidates with foreign-born MOTHERS (example: Donald Trump).

Trumps' entrance onto the political scene is intriguing; he's more than a useful gadfly but falls short of being a Conservative. Trump is a pragmatic businessman; hence his past political contributions to Democrats, but there is no questioning his patriotism and he says the correct things about China and the Arabs. Admittedly he is very controversial and we must be careful to avoid a Ross Perot scenario - Team Obama is hoping he'll run as the Tea Party candidate and split the vote but I don't think there's too much threat of that because right now we could run Mussolini against Obama and win by a landslide.






This is why of course there has been been such an unprecedented and concerted effort to destroy, malign & impugne The Sarah - because SHE is the threat. The Democrats know this and fear her for it.

Trump has provided us some refreshing distraction but ultimately he is more in Jesse Ventura's league whereas the role of successor to the great Ronaldus Magnus Reagan will go to the Wondrous White Witch of Wasilla . . .


STORMBRINGER SENDS




A READER WRITES

Here is what is wrong with it:

* Paper - they did not have the legal green paper back then but a thick white rough one. Here is what one should look like; from twins born the same week and from the same book 0bama's was suppose to be copied from.

* There was NO race of “African” on official certificates until 1997. His dad would have been 'Negro'

From US gov 1961 “Page 231 contains the requirements for “Race and color.”

“Births in the United States in 1961 are classified for vital statistics into white, Negro, American Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Aleut, Eskimo, Hawaiian and Part-Hawaiian (combined), and “other nonwhite.”

* The address used on here was reportedly lived in by a family for 40 years during the time of 0bama's birth . . .

“Orland Scott Lefforge owned and occupied the house at 6085 Kalanianao­le Highway. The Lefforge family, including their 3 children under the age of seven were residing at the luxury home listed on Obama’s newly found birth certificate — 6085 Kalanianao­le Highway. The “Obamas” didn’t live there. In 1961 the Dunhams lived on Kamehameha Avenue, while Obama Sr. lived on 11th Avenue."

* There is also question about the type set used as it is from a typewriter that was released to stores two weeks before 0bama's birth and does not match the twins copy.





Today's Bird HERE

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

ANZAC DAY

Anzac Cove, during the height of operations in Turkey, 1915.


Anzac Day commemorates the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. This is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand; nowadays Anzac Day honours all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

This day is especially honoured here on Blog STORMBRINGER.




Monday, April 25, 2011

CHE GUEVARA



If your kid ever comes home in a Che Guevara T-shirt, ask him if he knows what the Cuban murderer actually stood for. Sit him down, strip the gauze of ignorance from his eyes and have him read some of these Guevara quotes:


10 Che Guevara quotes the left would rather not talk about


Here are a few I pulled out:

  • “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary … These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution!”

  • “A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the The Wall!” The Wall is a reference to the wall where Che’s enemies stood before his firing squads.

  • “If any person has a good word for the previous government that is good enough for me to have him shot."


The only good Che Guevara is a dead Che Guevara


That not good enough to do the trick? Here's some more Che-ism the Left would rather not be publicized:


13 reasons you should throw away your Che Guevara T-shirt

  • Soon after Batista was overthrown, Guevara had hundreds of Cuban government officials executed. Notice that the phrase “fair trial” was conspicuously absent from the previous sentence.

  • Che was a brutal murderer. He trained and commanded firing squads that executed thousands of men, women and children deemed enemies by the new Castro regime. He once put a bullet in the head of a fellow guerrilla he suspected of disloyalty.

  • Che was not a fan of our First Amendment. He opposed freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and protest. Can you say North Korea?


This photo was taken in an Obama campaign office in Texas. The volunteer who put the poster on the wall might be surprised to learn that her hero opposed free elections.


But if your kid MUST wear a Che Guevara T-shirt, there's THIS brilliance:





Che Guevara in death, with CIA agent Gustavo Villoldo (left) and an unknown U.S. Special Forces officer.


At CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia they have a very interesting museum, which includes some displays dedicated to the campaign, capture & death of Che Guevara, to include personal artifacts. Che was such a threat, his remains a visible high-profile personality file in an otherwise sea of anonymity . . . S.L.



Today's Bird
HERE.


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Sunday, April 24, 2011

TO THE OTHER SIDE

Mercenary turned monk passes away


His story is remarkable - S.L.


From the



An American soldier of fortune who later became a monk in Thailand and helped hundreds of people overcome alcohol and drug addictions at the world famous Thamkrabok Temple in Thailand has passed away.

A spokesman for the temple said Phra Gordon, also known as Gordon Baltimore of Harlem or the "Black Monk", died on April 20 in hospital.


He said temple staff were working with the US embassy in Bangkok to locate Phra Gordon's family, which was difficult as the monk no longer had a passport.


In Thai, "Phra" (pronounced PRAH) is the honorific title for a monk - S.L.


Phra Gordon had lived at the temple for almost three decades, devoting himself to helping people overcome their addictions through a "tough love" rehabilitation program.


Wat Thamkrabok (pronounced TAHM-kra-boke) -I have visited this temple myself and witnessed their methods first hand - more than simply "tough love"; herbal-induced purging and daily saunas, combined with Buddhist spiritualism successfully rehabilitates heroin addicts and alcoholics - S.L.


Irish writer and teacher Paul Garrigan writes on his website of how with his loud US accent, keen sense of humour and large frame, Phra Gordon was far from a typical monk.

Garrigan describes the remarkable story of how Phra Gordon came to be at the temple; the Harlem, New York native was once a mercenary and admitted he had killed many people.

"He was on his way to join another army when he found himself at Thamkrabok temple. This was not a planned visit, but the bus he was traveling on experienced flat tires right outside the temple.

"While he was waiting for the wheels to be fixed, he went for a walk and met the head monk. To his amazement, this stranger in Buddhist robes informed Gordon that he was expected and that he would now be joining the temple.

"For some reason, Gordon accepted the revelation and ordained. He had no intention of staying there so long but the time never felt right to leave."


Phra Gordon said in an interview with the Washington Post that growing up in Harlem in the 1950s and '60s and as a nine-year-old watching a man die from an overdose turned him away from drugs.

He said he joined the merchant marines at age 16, and during a stopover in Penang (Malaysia) he met Bob Denard, a French mercenary who was recruiting fighters.


French soldier-of-fortune Bob Denard, in the early sixties.


"Being an American black, they think you know everything about guns," Phra Gordon said, while admitting he didn't.

He participated in some major conflicts, but after a brush with death in Namibia he decided to give up the life of a mercenary.

After a long journey around the world, Phra Gordon arrived in Thailand, took a bus ride out of Bangkok and just wandered into the grounds of Wat Thamkrabok.

"I'm not crazy," he said, recalling the day. "But I heard someone say 'You've come here at last.' After the war and all that, I got a feeling of peace.

"After Harlem and the life of a mercenary," he said, "this was the last stop for me."


Wat Thamkrabok directly translates as "the-Temple-Where-You-Do-What-You-Say" - in addition to their successful drug and alcoholism treatment program, a large number of Hmong hill tribe refugees live there - S.L.



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Saturday, April 23, 2011

WORLD COMING APART

AFRICA: After Nigeria Elects Christian President, Muslims Torch 40 Churches, Kill 100 Christians


The daily slaughter continues.


(All Voices) — Muslim rioters in Nigeria protesting the just concluded presidential elections have killed more than 100 Christians and burned down more than 40 churches in an attack that began yesterday.

This revelation is contained in a report by the Regional Manager for Africa, International Christian Concern (ICC), Jonathan Racho noting that this latest demonstration is in response to the election of Jonathan Goodluck, a Christian, as president of Nigeria.

He pointed out that the rioters even destroyed the homes of many Muslims who supported President Jonathan Goodluck adding that the Muslim attackers allege that the election was rigged and General Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim presidential candidate, is the rightful winner.

He said that the Commonwealth observers’ report judged that election as “this election the fairest in decades. The elections for the National Assembly and the Presidency were both credible and creditable and reflected the will of the Nigerian people.”

According Racho, it is difficult to know the full extent of the damage. The casualties could be much higher as the attacks took place over many of the 12 Muslim majority states in northern Nigeria.


Read more HERE



We may have already past the point in history for Africa to save itself from barbarism and savagery - S.L.



WORLD COMING APART: MIDDLE EAST


Syria's Bloodiest Day: 80 Dead as Security Forces Fire on Demonstrators



Damascus -- A strong military presence remained in place around Damascus on Saturday in the wake of the country’s bloodiest day in five weeks of growing unrest. Large turnouts are expected to mourn the scores of victims, which activists say has now reached more than 100.

Security forces fired on protesters, seeking to quell demonstrations following Friday prayers in Latakia, Homs, Hama, Damascus and the southern village of Isra’a. Tens of thousands took to the streets on Friday in defiance of earlier government warnings that any further displays of unrest would not be tolerated.

In Moadniyah, a small town roughly 10km south of Damascus, a massive cordon of troops encircled the town. Soldiers also positioned themselves on rooftops and outside mosques, while others peered out from behind barricades of sandbags and giant tires.

The town hosted sizeable unrest Friday, 15 March when thousands of residents marched towards Damascus but were forced back by security forces firing tear gas.

Late in the afternoon on Friday reports circulated claiming either the army or security forces had opened fire on demonstrators in the town.

"People are being taken to hospital in cars," said one demonstrator who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal.


Basher Assad is a pig and a butcher, just like his father before him and just like the pig he's standing next to in this photo.

President Bashar al-Assad maintains absolute power in the country he inherited from his father, Hafez, in 2000. Recently however, some analysts suggest internal rifts are forming within the Assad family.

"There are demonstrations in all the cities and villages around Syria," said Mr Maleh, a human rights lawyer in Damascus. "People want the regime to fall."

In a concession to demonstrators last Friday, Assad announced intentions to lift the much-despised emergency laws, in place for 48 years since the Baath Party seized power in a coup.

A law was passed this week to scrap the decades-old measure. Many activists, however, believe the move is not enough to quell the ever-growing tide of anti-government feeling now sweeping the country.

"I went to protest for the first time because I want freedom and dignity," said one young man in his twenties who sat on a bedroom floor sipping his glass of coke. "I want this country to be a good country."


More HERE


"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States




NORTH AMERICA: Brutal Mexican Drug Gang Crosses into U.S.



SPREADING TERROR: A woman sees a relative lying dead on the ground after he was killed by gunmen in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in December.(Associated Press)


“Those of us who live and work along the border know they’re already here,” said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., whose Texas county lies on the Rio Grande 50 miles southeast of the Zetas’ stronghold of Nuevo Laredo. “There’s already been killings and many residents here are living in fear.”

Sheriff Gonzalez, whose Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition sought help from the federal government to control growing violence along the border, said the rising brutality of Mexican drug gangs, particularly the Zetas, “never stops shocking me.”

Trained as an elite band of Mexican anti-drug commandos, the Zetas evolved into mercenaries for the infamous Gulf Cartel, bringing a new wave of brutality to Mexico’s escalating drug wars. Bolstered by an influx of assassins, bandits, thieves, thugs and corrupt federal, state and local police officers, the Zetas have since evolved into a well-financed and heavily armed drug smuggling force of their own.


Mexican federal police and army soldiers guard a U.S. Embassy vehicle after it came under attack by gunmen on a highway between Mexico City and Monterrey in February. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another wounded in the attack. Many of Zetas' targets have been Mexican military and police personnel, but in recent years, U.S. law enforcement authorities also have come under attack. (Associated Press)


Known for mounting the severed heads of their rivals on poles or hanging their dismembered bodies from bridges in cities throughout Mexico, the Zetas have easily become the most feared criminal gang in Mexico — where 35,000 people have been killed in a continuing drug war. Everyone is a potential victim: men, women and children.

“The Zetas are determined to gain the reputation of being the most sadistic, cruel and beastly organization that ever existed,” said George W. Grayson, professor of government at the College of William & Mary and an expert on Mexican drug gangs. “Many of Mexico’s existing drug cartels will kill their enemies, but not go out of their way to do it. The Zetas look forward to inflicting fear on their targets.

“They won’t just cut off your ear, they’ll cut off your head and think nothing of it.”


Sooner or later we have to start treating the border like a military situation - in the meantime, expect this kind of savagery to continue moving northward - S.L.



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PHONY VET SCAMMED $16 MILLION

Fake "Disabled Vet" John Anthony Raymond White Found Guilty - Eipped Off Taxpayers for $16 Million

A man claiming to be a disabled vet was convicted Wednesday of ripping off the government for $16 million in federal contracts.

A Manhattan federal jury said John Anthony Raymond White and his firm, Mitsubishi Construction Corp., bid on contracts the VA awarded under the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program.

White at times claimed he hurt his back while a Navy ROTC; other times he said he was in Special Forces.

The jury concluded he was always a fraud - and he faces up to 75 years in jail and $3.7 million in fines when sentenced.

He won several contracts, including a $5.7 million job in 2009 to build a flood wall around the Veterans Administration Medical Center on E. 23rd St. in Manhattan.

"Those contracts were supposed to go to real veterans," prosecutor Alvin Bragg said.

Eventually, the VA got suspicious and discovered White has a rap sheet for forgery and grand larceny.

White ultimately told the VA he was not a vet.

Read more HERE:



Today's Bird HERE



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Friday, April 22, 2011

THE RED BARON

Shot down and Killed in Action this day in 1918 by Australian groundfire, near Amiens, France.


Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), the Red Baron.



Quite possibly the most widely known fighter pilot of all time, von Richtofen is considered the ace-of-aces of World War I, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories, more than any other pilot.

Originally a cavalryman, von Richthofen transferred to the Air Service in 1915. He quickly distinguished himself as a fighter pilot, and during 1917 became leader of Jasta 11 and then the larger unit Jagdgeschwader 1 (better known as the "Flying Circus"). By 1918 he was regarded as a national hero in Germany, and was very well known by the other side.


Death of von Richthofen

Richthofen was fatally wounded just after 11 a.m. on 21 April 1918, while flying over Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River.

At the time, the Baron had been pursuing at very low altitude a Sopwith Camel piloted by novice Canadian pilot, Lt. Wilfrid May of No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force. In turn, the Baron was spotted and briefly attacked by a Camel piloted by May's flight Commander, Canadian Cpt. Arthur "Roy" Brown.

It was during this final stage in his pursuit of May that Richthofen was hit in the chest by a single .303 bullet - analysis points to a group of Australian machinegunners as the dealers of the death-blow.

Anti-aircraft (AA) machinegunner Sgt. Cedric Popkin of the Australian 24th Machine Gun Company, most likely killed Richthofen using a Vickers gun. He fired at Richthofen's aircraft on two occasions: first as the Baron was heading straight at his position, and then at long range from the right. Given the nature of Richthofen's wounds, Popkin was in a position to fire the fatal shot, when the pilot passed him for a second time, on the right.

In the last seconds of his life, von Richthofen managed to make a hasty but controlled landing in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector controlled by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). One witness, Gunner George Ridgway, stated that when he and other Australian soldiers reached the aircraft, Richthofen was still alive but died moments later. Another eye witness, Sgt Ted Smout of the Australian Medical Corps, reported that Richthofen's last word was "kaput!".


Replica of Manfred von Richthofen's red Fokker Dr.I triplane - 425/17; the original was not badly damaged by the final landing, but it was taken apart by souvenir hunters.



Decorations and Awards

* Prussian Order Pour le Mérite: 12 January 1917 (in recognition of his 16th aerial victory).

The "Blue Max"

* Prussian Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class with Crown and Swords: 6 April 1918 (in recognition of his 70th aerial victory).
* Prussian House Order of Hohenzollern, Knight's Cross with Swords: 11 November 1916.
* Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class (1914)
* Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class (1914): 12 September 1914.
* Bavarian Military Merit Order, 4th Class with Swords: 29 April 1917.[62][N 6]
* Saxon Military Order of St. Henry, Knight's Cross: 16 April 1917.
* Württemberg Military Merit Order, Knight's Cross: 13 April 1917.
* Saxe-Ernestine House Order, Knight 1st Class with Swords (issued by the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha): 9 May 1917.
* Hesse General Honour Decoration, "for Bravery"
* Lippe War Honour Cross for Heroic Deeds: 13 October 1917.
* Schaumburg-Lippe Cross for Faithful Service: 10 October 1917.
* Bremen Hanseatic Cross: 25 September 1917.
* Lübeck Hanseatic Cross: 22 September 1917.
* Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, 3rd Class with War Decoration: 8 August 1917.
* Austrian Military Merit Cross, 3rd Class with War Decoration
* Bulgarian Order of Bravery, 4th Class (1st Grade): June 1917.
* Turkish Imtiaz Medal in Silver with Sabres
* Turkish Liakat Medal in Silver with Sabres
* Turkish War Medal ("Iron Crescent"): 4 November 1917.
* German Army Pilot's Badge
* German Army Observer's Badge[N 7]
* Austrian Field Pilot's Badge (Franz Joseph pattern)




Today's Bird HERE


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Thursday, April 21, 2011

SHANKAPOTOMUS




I can't believe what I'm seeing - somebody who sucks at golf ten times worse than I do!

What I say is, he has no "follow-through". I ain't a good golfer but I'm a damn good pistolero, and the principle is the same: most important thing - in golf as in combat pistol marksmanship - is follow-through.

Want to see a real swing? At the end of this analysis:





Now that's how a real man hits a golf ball.


Today's Bird HERE



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THE EPITOME OF HONOR

A Marine Force Recon buddy sent this to me today; this is what the American warrior class does for it's own - we always bring them back. It might take fifty, or a hundred and fifty years, but in the end . . . we always bring them back.


This is Honor.





The Marine Raiders of World War II were the forerunners of Force Reconnaissance.






Also today, we honor Tim Hetherington, British war correspondent and photographer - killed in action, 20 April 2011 in the besieged Libyan city of Misurata.

Journalists go forward to the battle fronts as absolute volunteers - there is no requirement they go. This is guts, and they serve an important role as scribes of history. But in the end, theys rolls the dices and theys takes theys chances. Hetherington was worthy, however - he was director and producer of the film “Restrepo”


In 2007 and 2008, Hetherington spent 14 months with a platoon of 
paratroopers from the famed 173d Airborne Brigade in the Korangal Valley, Afghanistan.


I saw that documentary; it was so real for me, it sent shivers up my spine.


Timothy (Tim) Hetherington, 1970 – April 20, 2011



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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

U.S. & INDIAN ARMY SPECIAL FORCES

This is my old outfit -


1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, out of Okinawa.

Never in a million years could I imagine "First of the First" up there in the snow in Alaska - we were tropical lightning, "Unleashed in the East" . . .






Thanks to THEO for bringing this gloriousness to my attention . . . S.L.



In honor of my old outfit and Indian Special Forces, here is some Southwest Asian Hotness wearing North American tribal colors.


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RELIGION OF THE INDIG'




A reader writes:

I am not nor have I ever been in the forces, I have worked with a lot of working/serving personnel and one thing I do not understand is why when they are up against Muslims they do not use there primitive religion against them such as telling them that all our ammo is coated in pigs blood and that when we bury one of there dead we inter a dead Pigs body with it the sort of things that you had in the article on Black Jack Pershing they want to live by 13th century beliefs so use it against them you don't have to actually do all these things just start rumors and let them do the work like telling them that when you pick up the pieces of suicide bomber you bury them with bits of pig so they can not get into Paradise and that when they get caught they will get tied up using pig skin leather all little thing I know but for Religious nuts it will mean something and maybe discourage some.

- Z



Good question, Z-Man. Here's the short answer:

There's a little something out there called the Law of Land Warfare that will get you sent to Leavenworth for pulling stunts like this. Anyway at the U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Center they taught us NEVER to mess with their religion - there is no way to control how a thing like that can boomerang right back at you in the wrong way direction. Believe it or not most of the Muslims are on our side and we want to keep it that way. Can you imagine if we infuriated ALL of them to the point where they ALL want to strap on bombs?


al Qaeda's objective is to turn this thing into a religious war, and if we let it happen then we just lost.


Better the sane Muslims see what decent, tolerant people we are. The current state of affairs cannot prevail; there is too much angst, hatred, ignorance and confusion out there. This is against the natural way of things. History shows us time and again that a set of circumstances may seemingly lead to a certain direction, but we humans are totally UN-predictable and that which is accepted as status quo can and will be upturned in the most unexpected and unorthodox manner.

Consider: in 1988 the Soviet Union was still going strong, people were still being hauled off to the Gulag, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles were pointed right at the heartland of America. Common knowledge had it that the Cold War was going to last FOREVER. But in 1989 a bunch of German nature-worshipers went out for a little Communist Bloc version of Woodstock and the next thing you know the punk rockers were KNOCKING DOWN THE FREAKING BERLIN WALL WITH SLEDGEHAMMERS ! ! !


Even the CIA didn't see THAT one coming . . .


So now we have this situation with the Muslims, and the only logic one can make of it is that it's unsustainable . . . eventually something has got to give . . . carried out to it's logical conclusion it makes the Cold War look like a Sunday School picnic . . . it's simply unsustainable. But what if something unexpected - totally unexpected - yet totally within the capacity of the human condition - HAPPENS?


The Temple Mount, al Aqsa Mosque, and the Western Wall; the conjunction of the Three Great Faiths - the People of the Book - and where the Beginning of the End supposed to kick off.


What if, for example, one day all the good Muslims suddenly became Christians?

That would be a game-changer to say the least, and it's certainly within the realm of possibility.

For what it's worth, I owe my life to a Muslim, but that does not cloud my thinking; there are no rose-colored glasses. I am a soldier, first and foremost. Barring a miracle of Biblical proportions, it may very well be that in the end my brothers and I must be prepared to slay them in their thousands and their tens of thousands, until the blood runs knee-deep in the streets. Knee-deep, to the horses knees.


STORMBRINGER SENDS






Today's Bird HERE


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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

THEY CAUGHT 'EM

FLASHBACK:
03/15 Palestinian Authority blames Fogel Family Killings on Thai Migrant Worker.



FASTFORWARD:
04/17 Killers of Fogel Family Caught:


Hakim Maazan Niad Awad and Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad snuck into the Fogel home, saw children sleeping in their beds and stabbed them to death; the suspects are affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.


Who are the terrorists to murdered the Fogel family?


From the Jerusalem Post

Two Palestinian youths from the village of Awarta were arrested in recent days for the brutal slaying of five members of the Fogel family in their Itamar home last month, the IDF and Shin Bet said on Sunday following the lifting of a media ban on the investigation.

The suspects have been named as Hakim Maazan Niad Awad, an 18-year-old high school student, and Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad, 19, both from the West Bank village of Awarta, located 2 kilometers south of the settlement of Itamar.

The suspects have confessed to the stabbings and re-enacted the murders, security forces said on Sunday. According to Army Radio, they did not express remorse for their crimes.


There is a special place in Hell for pieces of manure like this pair - S.L.


Both men are affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) terror group and received significant assistance from family members and friends after the attack, security forces added.

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Sunday expressed his condolences once again to the Fogel family after the announcement of the arrests.

Katz told Army Radio, "To those Palestinians who said 'it can't be one of us' - well, it turned out to be one of you."

Read the rest of it HERE at the Jerusalem Post

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ANOTHER ONE - DIFFERENT THIS TIME

Another phony caught out in a lie . . . what’s unusual is this time it’s a woman:

TOWN DUPED BY HER STORY OF SERVICE

She said she was hurt in Afghanistan; but she wasn't even in the military. Photo: Cass Lake Times


MARK BRUNSWICK , Star Tribune - April 17, 2011
The town of Cass Lake embraced Elizabeth McKenzie last month when she arrived at the high school in her Army uniform for a welcome home ceremony.

Though she isn't a tribal member, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Honor Guard gave her a blanket and an eagle feather to honor her as a woman warrior for her service in Afghanistan. There was a tribal drum ceremony and a reception line. Accepting the town's gratitude, McKenzie talked about the close calls she'd had and a war injury that brought her home. She led the march in the high school gym, carrying the American flag, and the local newspaper documented the hero's return.

But none of it was true. The 20-year-old McKenzie was never injured in combat, had never been to Afghanistan, never been deployed anywhere. In fact, she's never been in the military.

Now the 2009 grad of Cass Lake High School has been cited for impersonating an officer, which in Minnesota includes the military. And the people of Cass Lake are trying to recover from feeling duped by their own good intentions.

More HERE



Forget about this skank, check out today's Bird HERE


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Monday, April 18, 2011

WAR IN THE LAND OF CHOCOLATE - PART 2

My story continues . . . Part 1 is HERE - S.L.


Africa is tribal. I saw this in the Ivory Coast – le Cote d’Ivoire – when I was there as a military advisor in 1999. I would tell the Ivorian officer where & when I needed his men, or where to go to next; he would turn around and give a command and half the platoon would tighten up and look alert like proper soldiers. The other half would look down at the ground and shuffle their feet, a lot of attitude and body language. I figured it out real fast; half the platoon was his tribe, Ashanti, the “shuck-and-jive” crowd was of the other tribe; Twee, or Ibo.

On 24 December 1999 what started as a pay mutiny by these same disaffected troops morphed into a coup d’etat, and by 2002 had become a full-blown civil war. At that time my unit was sent in to get 2700+ Americans and other nationalities out of the rebel-held north. What we saw last week - French and UN helicopters firing missiles into the President’s residence in Abidjan - was the culmination of events that kicked off in 1999.


French helicopter attack sortie toward the Presidential Residence in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, April 2011.


The current set of circumstances Cote d’Ivoire relate directly to national elections held in October of last year. Despite losing the election, Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down, never mind the fact that his term in office expired five years ago; he simply refused to leave.

His opponent, Alassane Ouattara, has the support of world leaders, but not of Ivory Coast's military. And so associated himself with the rebel faction, which slowly but surely made its way toward the capital in an almost symbolic combat that claimed less than 500 lives.


Road to War:

In the years leading up to the coup of ’99, the government of President Bédié had drifted toward a xenophobic policy described as “Ivoirité”: the exclusion of immigrant workers from Mali and Burkina Faso, some of whom had been in the country for generations. Ouattara’s father’s side of the family is from Burkina Faso – a fact that confounded Ouattara’s earlier political activities - and so much of the exploited underclass was able to identify with him and the rebel forces that emerged since the civil war of ’02. Another complication in this conflict is the cultural fault line between Muslims in the north, and the Christian majority of the economically prosperous south.

In North America it is difficult to fully appreciate these kind of issues, of course, and all this past month the thing in Libya has eclipsed the situation in West Africa. Oil is important, despite the fact that we could straight up buy the oil from the Libyans if we wanted to – or anyone else - any day of the week, or we can drill for it ourselves. But Cote d’Ivoire has something unique that can’t be found in deserts, arctic regions or at the bottom of the ocean.


Carrying cocoa beans in the port of San Pedro, Ivory Coast; much of the 
nation's economy depends on the exports. (Jane Hahn / New York Times)


Cote d’Ivoire produces almost 50% of the world’s supply of cocoa beans, and the beans have been piling up in the warehouses. There is coffee there as well, and rubber plantations. The rebels say they are fighting for their national identity, but their cause was financed by the power of the beans.


Autumn Return

In September of 2002 my outfit got the word we were going down to the Ivory Coast to evacuate Americans. Normally for this sort of thing the phone rings in the dead of night, you roll over, “Honey, I’m going to be out of town for a couple of weeks.” She says, “Whatever,” and you get a little break from each other’s company.

This time “the balloon went up” at ten in the morning. We immediately went into mission prep, dragged our kit bags, drew our weapons and blew out of there – phone calls to mama-san were out of the question; OPSEC. My wife and kids – ALL the wives and kids – didn’t know where we were for the better part of two weeks.

We flew into Yamousoukro and established ourselves in the airport firehouse – a cement lean-to at the drainage end of the runway. The place was infested with mosquitos. I have lived and worked in the tropics most of my life and I have never seen mosquitos that bad; at one point I looked down at my exposed forearm and it looked like I had black fur. I wiped the insects away and my skin was dripping red with blood.


American Special Forces at Yamassoukro Airport, Cote d'Ivoire, September 2002.


The American refugees assembled at the International Christian Academy in Bouaké. The rebels were having a firefight with the Loyalists; the French Foreign Legion were pulling security in their LAVs (Light Armored Vehicles) and their gun jeeps. The Loyalists would fall back through the Legion’s lines, the Legion would open up on the rebels, the rebels would fall back and the Loyalists would advance; rinse and repeat.

The people we evacuated were mostly missionaries who’d lived there for years. They left everything behind; they were allowed one bag each. We rolled up there in our “GunVees” (modified HumVees bristling with belt-fed weapons), pulled security while the Americans loaded up in school buses, then escorted them back to the airport at Yamoussoukro.



American refugees escorted by American Special Forces, Ivory Coast, September 2002.

(That's me you can see through the windshield of the bus.)


The scene at the airport was equally sad; I saw a Frenchman roll up in his Renault, hop out and say to an African standing nearby, “You want a car?” Then he simply handed over the keys.

At one point I was interviewed by an American intelligence officer. “You’ve been here before? You trained the rebels?”

“That’s right.” I told him about our activities in Akuedo, in 1999.

He asked me what kind of troops they were, their capabilities. I told him that if ever you come under fire from them, the safest place to be is right out in the middle of the road.

“HUH?”

“They can’t hit the broad side of a barn, from the inside.”

He opened up a laptop and showed me photographs of the rebels taken in Bouaké and Korhogo. “Do you recognize any of these guys?”

“Well, they all look the same, but yes I do. That guy’s name is Valere.”

“YOU KNOW HIS NAME?”

“We used to drink beer and play cards together.”


Valere


“What about this guy?”

“That’s Ironman.”

Like all military operations, there was a lot of “hurry-up-and-wait”. I spent an afternoon in an air-conditioned van with an older American gentleman and his wife. She had a strange accent I couldn’t quite put a finger one. To fight boredom I started impersonating the French officers – in French; the wife was going into hysterics, ringing out peals of laughter. Turned out she was Québécois, which explained a lot of things, and he was the “OGA” station chief, which explained even more.

Later, after we returned to Stuttgart, I learned from an Ivoirian I’d stayed in touch with that my buddy Valere was indeed with the rebel forces. It turned out he was killed in action - in Bouaké, the day of the evacuation.


Epilogue:

In February of 2003 I attended a briefing at Special Operations Command, Europe (SOCEUR), in Stuttgart. The officer opened the briefing with, “It’s coup season again down in Africa.” A small team was put on alert to go down to “CDI”, to perform reconnaissance tasks, prepare assembly areas for an evacuation, etcetera. We were told to pack our bags and be ready to launch; the specific guidance was: “Be within one hour of sobriety.”

While waiting for the balloon to go up, my journalist brother emailed me that he would be passing through Frankfurt, headed for an embed slot with the 3d Infantry Division for the then-anticipated invasion of Iraq - could we meet up?

At first I told him I couldn't make it – I was on a one hour string. Then it occurred to me that I was instrumental in my brother’s circumstances - in January I'd made a phone call that got him into the embed program – and if something terrible happened, I would never forgive myself, not seeing him when I had the chance. I had to go, so I called the officer over at SOCEUR. “Can you be back here within one hour?” Sure thing, I told him; normally it’s an hour and a half ride up there, but you can fly over those German autobahns. Never mind the fact there was about an inch of ice all over everything.

My brother and I linked up in the airport - he finagled his way through Customs to get out of the transit lounge. We had a good German breakfast of sausages and beer and joked about how it would be his last beer for a long time. Afterwards we strolled through the side of the airport which is like a giant shopping mall, and I pointed out the escalators to the S-bahn, the trains that go everywhere in Germany. It was still dark outside when my phone went off; all my brother heard was me saying, “Yes sir . . . uh-huh . . . yes sir . . . I’ll be there. I’m enroute.”

I looked up and my brother was grinning from ear to ear; he’d just seen me get THE PHONE CALL. We said our goodbyes and he went his way and I went mine. Two brothers, linking up in Europe, heading in two separate directions to two different wars, on two different continents. Much later my brother described the scene: “It was like being in London, 1942.”

My brother went to the Sandpile and took part in the Great and Glorious War on Terror; I parked my car in front of a gray, non-descript building in a military compound in Stuttgart, went inside and grabbed my kit bag, got on a C-130 and made my way back down to an obscure little war in Africa, in a country most people can’t even find on a map.


SEAN LINNANE SENDS







MMB HERE


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