Still writing up a thing or two, until then... Obey this puppeh!


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13 comments (Latest Comment: 08/18/2011 13:49:11 by Mondobubba)

Good Morning.

Today is our 3,072nd day in Iraq, and our 3,600th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4474
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4335
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3615
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 246
Since Operation New Dawn: 46

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,736
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 933
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 235, 865, 200, 000 .00
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78 comments (Latest Comment: 08/17/2011 01:03:06 by TriSec)

WE had a bit of a coffee emergency in the house this morning -- so until I'm further caffeinated, please enjoy our blog snacks... Be right back!


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41 comments (Latest Comment: 08/15/2011 21:04:05 by Raine)

Good Morning!

Today we wrap up our 'birthday week' with young Javi's party. Beginning from July 31, we have my brother, his daughter, me, and Javi in a span of 9 days. When my Grandmother was alive, we had to start that clock on July 30...and go 10 days back to get Mama TriSec on July 21.

In any case, we had some fairly low-key stuff on our actual birthdays earlier in the week. Today we'll have a yard full of kids and pizza, and fortunately the weather is cooperating.

I'm sitting here looking at Javi's prize....his first MP3 player. (No, not an iPod.) Coupled with the internet blackout at work, that's got me thinking about music again this week. How many of you have one of these in a box in the attic somewhere?
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5 comments (Latest Comment: 08/14/2011 01:56:31 by clintster)

As a former reporter, I have lived long enough to not be easily shocked. I have covered murders and other crimes. Yet, I was surprised by the scale of death and suffering in the bombing in Oslo and the horrific shootings at Utoya in Norway on July 22nd.  As of now, the death toll stands at 86 people, eight dead in a bombing in Oslo and perhaps 68 dead at a Labor Party youth camp on the isle of Utoya. This tragedy can be likened to both 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing in that fanaticism led to the lost of innocent life.

Initially, some in the U.S. media attributed the attacks to Muslim terrorists as events unfolded. Conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin initially linked the attacks to Muslim extremists on her blog at the Washington Post as did conservative CNN commentator Erick Erickson. However, the attacks were the work of a man of Norwegian descent, Anders Behring Breivik, who issued a manifesto condemning Muslims, “cultural Marxists, and liberalism in general" for creating a Europe that he sees as becoming alien to traditional European cultures.  Indeed, many of the phrases in Breivik’s long manifesto were lifted from the manifesto of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who also opposed many of the changes in modern society.

What leads a person to choose to kill dozens of people? Hate. The phrase cultural Marxism is a popular one among the American neo Nazi movement. Chip Berlet, a noted observer of right wing extremism, addresses Breivik’s extremism in a recent post "Anders Behring Breivik: Soldier in the Christian Right Culture Wars":
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91 comments (Latest Comment: 08/12/2011 00:25:02 by livingonli)