I didn't notice it until Estrogen Lass pointed it out in an email (honest) but somehow you guys have read this thing enough to make my blog number one for a day (even topping Brad's own (EL insists I am *ahem* "servicing him" (I'm not))). Because it is unlikely to ever happen again (and I am certainly around a million hits/day from threatening guys with real talent) I took a screen shot of it (for posterity mind you!).      Thanks for reading...

            1 week in school = 1 point, but 1 week in Kuwait or Iraq = Zilch. – ParaTed2k in the comment section of this article by Hyperborean Wanderer . (see Wanderer? thats how links work (they teach that in college I think))           I have never seen this problem stated so baldly or so well. Col Hackworth often rages against the “Perfumed Princes” who have come to r...

     Here in the TOC we just finished watching Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Lindsey Graham on CBS. I hadn’t seen a “issues” interview from Senator Clinton in quite a while but this was definitely one.      I was a it distracted during the interview so I couldn’t catch it all but I definitely took one thing away from the overall tone : Triangulation.      The interview was purest Clinton.. Bill Clinton that is… Any doubt...

     Here in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) we have 3 huge plasma screens showing various intelligence products at any given time. We track aircraft flying live collection missions. We are actually doing work for most of the day. Tere are 3 radios that we are required to respond to 24 hours a day. Ignoring all this is LTC Hajj  sitting here watching a DVD on one of our other TV at ear bleeding volume. He has his own TV in his own private room. Does he use it? Nope...

Money quote of the day from an O-5 (Lieutenant Colonel) who has been in country for 6 months: "What's the Hajj?"   Arrrgh!  

            There are two sorts of people who come to you for your help: Students and Parasites.             Students (this includes peers and superiors) who come to you in an honest attempt to learn a skill you have are normally welcomed by most folks (unless you are some sort of sociopath). They need to do something and are currently unable to do it or unable to do it as well as...

     It's not like Lileks needs a bump from me but I eally am enjoying his Joe Ohio fiction series. The groundrules are simple: One matchbook drawn at random fom his collection follwed by whatever plotline he can extrapolate in 30 minutes flat.      The result is somewhat dark and depressing but extrememly engaging nonethless. Check it out. Certainly worth more of your time than those online horoscope places .      While you ...

     When is enough enough? Honestly I thought I had seen the bottom of the retardation barrel already in my 14 year tour through the Military Intelligence kingdom of loathing but I was wrong.      Our illustrious unit has decreed that all members of the unit who are deployed here in Iraq will get an award when we go home. Furthermore the minimum award will be an Army Commendation Medal (ARCOM) . Of course since it is a combat zone administrati...

     (full disclosure : I am biased against criminals)      Although you will be unable to view his original post (because he caved to pressure ) Talisein was the one I picked this up from. He linked to this experiment conducted by Stanford. While I found the entire affair to be quite interesting I did see a strange sort of anti-prison bias in the whole thing.      From the very first the experiment w...

Note : (While attempting to get this to post, ForeverSerenity also posted her thoughts here .)      Over here the Super Bowl is a pretty big deal (us being a bit starved for entertainment) so nearly everyone gathered around the various TV screens in offices and MWR tents across our little post to watch the Eagles waste a lot of opportunities against the Pats. I watched alongside SFC Calangelo and a group of his stormtroopers/kool-aid slupring cultists and had a high ...

     Now here is an organization I can get excited about. Adopt-a-sniper "aims" to support our US snipers in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently featured on Fox News, brought to my attention by Little Green Footballs in this article  and disapproved of by Marquette University.  An excerpt :       CHICAGO (Reuters) - A U.S. university in Wisconsin has blocked an attempt by Republican students to raise money for a group ...

Now I know that many of the folks who read this blog are not political junkies but for those who might wish to be let me give a quick tour of the blogosphere Qlippoth I prefer (your mileage and political leaning may vary).   My favorites?  1. Little Green Footballs This site concentrates on political news and has a decidedly conservative viewpoint. Charles the webmaster is one of the most maligned (by the MainStream Media (MSM)) bloggers who are still working.  2. ...

     Normally i don't have many nice things to say about protests and displays at Left Coast colleges but I think this one deserves an accolade.   Credit for the title goes to : Right-Thinking.com

     (Note : The previous Deadly Charisma are located here : 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9      Well here I am again. Not as fucked this time around though. Seems that I am now in Iraq in SFC Vince Calangelo's company. I arrived at around 3 a.m. local time and was quickly shown to a cot set-up in one of Saddam's old aircraft hangars. Even before my bags were all upstairs I heard someone bounding up to th second floor in the dark. There he was Vinc...

     We are finally off of Force Protection lockdown here which is pretty nice (Interceptor Bodyamor is heavy folks) and it has been an uneventful couple of days here post election. Have I done everything I was supposed to today? Called Estrogen Lass (Segovia sucks)? Check Shopped for a few gifts online? Check Updated the SITREP? Check Chem lights in th shitters? Check Watched the Dems implode? Check Chortled over said implosion? Check, check, check, ...