Archive for May, 2006
I came across a couple of other posts about the protest at a Grand Rapids military recruiting center:
Group Protests Predatory Military Recruiters at Armed Forces Career Center
This is from Media Mouse, a Grand Rapids citizen journalist group which “has closely identified itself with the Indymedia network” since 1999:
After about fifteen minutes of chanting facts about the realities of life the military, recruiters forced open one of the doors and started attempting to play music to drown out the protest. Interestingly–and perhaps not surprisingly–the recruiters played Toby Keith’s jingoistic country song “American Soldier” until it became clear that the music was not deterring the protestors and likely was doing more to disrupt business within the recruiting center. The majority of the recruiters then left the building and stood around drinking beer and smoking at the buffalo wings restaurant across the street while waiting for the police to come.
Can recruiters drink beer while on the job? This doesn’t seem likely to Murdoc, but it’s probably just another “fact and reality of life in the military”.
Read the rest of this entry »
War protest targets recruiting center
In Murdoc’s neck of the woods:
Grand Rapids resident Lori Freye realizes one small protest at a military recruiting station won’t stop the Iraq war in its tracks.
But Freye, 20, believes she must stand up against a war she believes has nothing to do with terrorism.
“We feel that this war would not be possible without the military and without recruiters.”
So does that mean that their goal is to destroy the military by preventing volunteers from joining? And that without a military war would be impossible? Great! And just think of all the extra people available to grow apple trees and honey bees and snow-white turtle doves.
Read the rest of this entry »
Got this from a reader. Can’t vouch for its authenticity or commend its quality, but looks like it could be legit:
MO noted the Diego Garcia belly landing incident last week.
UPDATE: A reader sent in a higher-res version of the pic, so I put it up in place of the original. Click for better look.
Navy News Stand posted a few recent pics of the 50-knot, low-wake, carbon-composite hulled experimental ship Stiletto in the story NSCT 1 Sailors Participate in Exercise Howler Aboard Stiletto.
Here are the pics:
The crew of experimental boat ship Stiletto readies the ship as it prepares to launch an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) during Exercise Howler. Stiletto is being tested for its usefulness in littoral combat warfare and interoperable environments. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Damien Horvath (RELEASED)
Threats Watch: 5 Myths About U.S.-Saudi Relations
Michelle Malkin: Something Doesn’t Seem Right
WaPo: This is a Saudi textbook. (After the intolerance was removed.)
Glenn Reynolds: Writes
The Saudis are not our friends. They are, in fact, at the root of global Islamist intolerance and violence to a degree at least as great as that of Iran. They must change peacefully, or be changed.
I recall a long and heated discussion I had in very very early 2002 about the possibility of invading a Middle Eastern nation. Both sides of the discussion were unsure of their position. The guy I was talking with was unsure whether military action was the right move. I was unsure whether invading Iraq first was the right move or if Arabia might not be better. I went with Iraq that day because of its strategic location in the middle of the hornets’ nest, as I almost always did. And still do.
Hilarious: Anti-war poseur fronted out at Hot Air
Quote:
“Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’ is more like Operation ‘Iraqi Slaughter’.”
Uncle Jimbo and Blackfive point out a few problems with this guy.
He just doesn’t want to “betray his ‘battle buddies’,” which he says deserve “a lot of jacked up stuff” for doing what they do, which is “terrorizing”.
I doubt that this is truly the work of the IVAW, though. They can’t be so dumb as to fall for this, can they?
UPDATE: John at OpFor has a roundup of some Jessie Macbeth coverage.
Blackfive in the comments on the post at his site:
Calling a fellow Ranger a “Battle Buddy” will get your ass kicked. Seriously.
Murdoc’s been laughing about the “battle buddy” thing all day long. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard this month.
One cartoon says it all:
Murdoc would humbly submit that Palestinian fighters are not the only ones fighting from behind baby carriages, and that Israeli troops aren’t the only ones defending the baby carriages, FWIW.
Found in Jay Tea’s No Recess for Terrorism which notes:
Palestinians launched a Qassam missile into a school. By what can only be described as a miracle, the Palestinian terrorists managed to 1) hit an unoccupied classroom, and 2) not have the missile’s warhead detonate, so this one goes in the books as a failed attempt to slaughter children by the scores. But since they didn’t actually manage to kill anyone, we are spared endless hand-wringing about the “cycle of violence” and other schlock that puts the Israelis and Palestinians on the same moral ground.
You know that it’s true, and you know how the story would have been spun. Recall the April story from Afghanistan in which a local police commander claimed that terrorists had fired a rocket at a school (killing six students) as part of their ongoing campaign against government-sponsored education. But the media worked pretty hard to blame a nearby coalition base for being the intended target.
Clockwise from top, an F-4 Phantom, a P-51 Mustang, an F16 Fighting Falcon, and a P-47 Thunderbolt fly in a heritage flight formation during the 2006 Defenders of Liberty Airshow at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., May 13, 2006. DoD photo by Master Sgt. Michael A. Kaplan, U.S. Air Force. (Released)
From JCCC.
UPDATE: Ooh, and another one from AF.mil:
A B-17G Flying Fortress and a B-52H Stratofortress fly in a heritage flight formation on Saturday, May 13 during the 2006 Defenders of Liberty Airshow at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. These two aircraft represent 70 years of “fortresses.” It was the first time in 50 years that they flew together in formation. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Michael A. Kaplan)
How about a little light news for the weekend?
Last fall, word of an “Aquaman” television series by the producers of “Smallville” was heard. More recently, it was rumored that the series would run on the CW Network, a new channel merging the WB and UPN networks that will debut this fall. A pilot episode titled “Mercy Reef” was produced. But when the fall line-up for CW was announced, there was no Aquaman to be seen.
A trailer was leaked somehow onto the WB server, and it was copied and posted to YouTube before it could be pulled. Check it out below. Murdoc doesn’t watch much television at all, but he might have given this series a couple of episodes to hook him.
Much, much more “Aquaman” info at AquamanTV.
UPDATE: Trailer has been pulled. It looked possibly interesting, though I’m more than a bit skeptical that they could get more than a season’s worth of good stories. Even in the comic books Aquaman had trouble holding up over the long run.
Via a reader: Experimental flexible armor fails Army testing
